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ARRAN OF THE BENS 
THE GLENS AND THE BRAVE 



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GOAT FELL FROM THE ROAD 
BETWEEN LAMLASH AND BRODICK 

From a j>ainting by 
J. LAIVTON IVINGATE, R.S.A. 



ARRAN OF THE BENS 

THE GLENS ^ THE BRAVE 

BY MACKENZIE MACBRIDE, F.S.A/SCOT.) 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY 

J. LAWTON WINGATE, R.S.A. 




CHICAGO 
A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

EDINBURGH : T. N. FOULIS 
I 9 I I 



Printed in Great Brita\ 






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IX—' 



CONTENTS 



PART I 
THE CHARM OF ARRAN 

CHAF. PAGE 

I. The Charm of Arran .... 3 
II. The Land between Sky and Water . 8 

THE HOLY ISLAND 

III. Arran's Romances . . . .12 

KING ROBERT BRUCE — CROMWELL AND 
ARRAN 

PART II 
HISTORICAL REMAINS 

IV. Arran's Ancient Chapels . . .21 

KILBRIDE — KILMORY — SHISKEN CHAPEL 
— SANNOX CHAPEL — GLEN ASHDALE 
CHAPEL 

V. Arran's Castles . . . . .27 

BRODICK CASTLE — LOCHRANZA CASTLE — THE 
GEOLOGY OF ARRAN 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAP. PAGE 

VI. The Caves of Arran . . . .31 

FINGAL'S CAVE — THE PREACHING CAVE 
AT KILPATRICK — THE WONDROUS BAUL 
OF SAINT MULUY 

PART III 

ARRAN IN THE EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY 

VII. Arran in the Eighteenth Century . 40 

THE OLD RUNRIG SYSTEM — JOHN BURRELL 
— HIS SCHEME OF IMPROVEMENT — THE 
GREAT REVOLUTION — SMUGGLING IN 
ARRAN — FAMOUS ARRAN PREACHERS — 
THE ARRAN EVICTIONS — WHAT PENNANT 
SAW— ARRAN AND THE FORTY-FIVE 



PART IV 

THE BRANDANI 

VIII. Old Families in Arran . . .69 

THE arran and BUTE BARONS 

IX. The Brandanes . . . .76 

OR, men OF ARRAN AND BUTE 

X. The Language of Arran . . . 8i 

THE AUTHOR OF THE FIRST GAELIC 
dictionary : WILLIAM SHAW — DANIEL 

MACMILLAN 



CONTENTS vii 

PART V 
OUR EARLY ANCESTORS IN ARRAN 

CHAP. PAGE 

XI. Arran's Wealth of Prehistoric Remains 91 

THE ETHNOLOGY OF ARRAN 

XII. Ancient Forts and Camps . . .103 

DRUMADOON — TOR CAISTEAL — GLEN ASH- 
DALE — KING'S CROSS — DUN FION— CRAIG 
NA CUIROCH — TORNANSCHIAN 

PART VI 

ARRAN— THE BATTLE-GROUND OF 
THE VIKING AGE 

XIII. Arran in the Viking Age . . -113 

THE christians OF lONA — THE VALE OF 

shisken and machrie moor 

XIV. The Arran Men at the Battle of Brun- 

anburh ..... 126 

THE fleet in LAMLASH BAY — MAGNUS 
BAREFOOT 

XV. Somerled, THE Hammer OF THE Norsemen 136 

XVI. How King Hakon fought at Largs . 145 

XVII. King Hakon at Lamlash . . .154 

PART VII 

THE DAYS OF WALLACE 

XVIII. The Great War of Independence . -159 

THE battle of STIRLING BRIDGE — THE 
BRANDANES AT THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK 
— HOW THE BRANDANES COVERED THE 
RETREAT — THE BRANDANES AT PERTH — 
EDWARD'S VENGEANCE 



viii CONTENTS 

PART VIII 

HOW THE ARRAN MEN SHELTERED 
KING ROBERT BRUCE 

CHAP. PAGE 

XIX. The Ambush at Brodick Castle . . 189 

BRUCE AND THE SPIDER — THE RED LIGHT 
ON TURNBERRY BEACON — THE BRANDANES 
AT BANNOCKBURN 

PART IX 

WHAT THE BRANDANES DID FOR 
THE STEWARTS 

XX. What the Brandanes did for the 

Stewarts .... 207 

the battle of the stones — the 
steward's escape from rothesay 
castle — the king's bodyguard — the 
battles of william the lyon and 
the disaster at pinkie 

PART X 

THE LATER LORDS OF ARRAN 

XXI. The Later Lords of Arran . 221 

THE BOYDS — THE HAMILTONS — " LADY 
MARY " 



ILLUSTRAT I ONS 

Reproduced from Oil Paintings by 
J. LAWTON WINGATE, R.S.A. 



goatfell from the road between 
Lamlash and Brodick . 

Sunset at Mouth of the Machrie 

AiLSA Craig and Pladda Lighthouse 
from Kildonan . 

Lochranza and Castle 

Old Bridge : North Glen Sannox 

Corn Cutting 

Old Arran Houses, Whiting Bay 

Harvesting — Tormore 

Caisteal Abhail 

The Edge of the Shisken Moor 

Drumadoon Bay 

The Old Pier, Lamlash, and the Holy 
Island .... 

Clouds moving over a Moor : Ben Ard 
ven in Distance 

Grey Cloudland : Sound of Kilbrannan 

Whiting Bay from the Kildonan Road 

The Approach of Night — Over the 
Sound of Kilbrannan . 



Frontispiece 
Page 8 

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40 

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72 



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104 -' 
120 
136 ' 



152 



168 



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184 ^ 
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ARRAN 

" Here, as of old, the dreaming hours fulfil 
Their ancient pledge, and flower in sunlit days 
Above thy pastoral slopes and wave-washed bays 
Where melody and colour merge and thrill. 
Thy chosen Priestess, Beauty, beckons still 
From whin-clad straths and heather-haunted ways, 
Or lies in wait along the scented braes. 
Or chains a leafy thought from hill to hill. 

Bruce found a shelter, lovely Isle, in thee 
When o'er his head the cloud of menace rolled, 
He saw thy rock-strewn mountains tipped with gold 
When morning mounted sovran from the sea. 
And on thy bosom, fold on misty fold. 
Beheld her dew-stained garments floating free." 

Ferdinand E. Kappey. 



PART I 
THE CHARM OF ARRAN 



CHAPTER I 
THE CHARM OF ARRAN 

Both the stranger and the native find some- 
thing peculiarly alluring in Arran ; and, though 
it is but a small island of twenty odd miles 
by seven, and the world is a large place, few 
who have known it fail to keep it amongst 
their cherished remembrances. I know an 
artist who has visited it regularly for forty 
years, and who starts again this autumn with 
a full programme of work already mapped out, 
and he would be the first to admit that much 
of his best work he owes to the pastoral 
loveliness and fine atmospheric effects so 
notable in the south of Arran. There are 
many, too, who, after thirty or forty years 
spent in the busiest cities, have been glad to 
turn their steps to their native island ; others 
there are who, in the full tide of manhood, 



4 ARRAN 

have forsaken the excitements of America 
and AustraHa and come home to settle in 
the smallest of villages close by Kilbrannan 
Sound. Paterson, a Lowlander, writing in 
1 834, says: "That the Highlandersof Scotland 
feel the love of country very strongly is unques- 
tionable ; and that it has a beneficial effect on 
their moral conduct is as certain. The dread 
of being expelled from Arran has more 
efficacy in restraining those of its inhabitants 
who may be inclined to dishonest, vicious, or 
idle courses, than all the penal laws in force." 
What, then, is it that Arran holds that is so 
great an attraction ? It is probably no one 
thing : the wonderful beauty of the Brodick 
lanes, with their views of Goatfell's great 
peak varied in character daily, nay sometimes 
hourly, but always lovely and commanding ; 
the sweet scent of the surrounding woods, 
fir and birch, myrtle and heath, and of the 
hundred and one wild flowers of Arran, 
all lend their subtle contributions. But, in- 
deed, the whole of the great groups of hills 
which stretch across the centre of the island, 
ranging in height from the 2866 feet of Goat- 



THE CHARM OF ARRAN 5 

fell to 600 or 800 feet in the southern district, 
have qualities which are rare. It would be 
difficult to find in a small space, even in Skye 
of the Mists or Mull of the Bens, mountains 
as weird, black, titanic as the Devil's Punch 
Bowl or Cioch nan h'oige (the Maiden's 
Breast), which alters so swiftly, mystically ; 
now almost invisible, merged in the surround- 
ing peaks, now a mere cone leaning obliquely 
southward ; while now, seen from Sannox 
moor, it stands up threateningly, overwhelm- 
ingly, right above you. Nor in all the hills of 
the west can there be found anything so like 
an enchanted fortress of the Arabian Nights 
as the wonderful Caisteal Abhail (Casteel 
Aval), crowning its huge granite crag over 
sheer black precipices nearly three thousand 
feet below. And this is not all, for the great 
hill at the back, Ceum na Cailleach, is formed 
in the same cyclopean spirit, and its fantastic 
pinnacles seem to tell of further batdements 
beyond for those to climb who would attempt 
the strongholds of the gods. And there 
again, to the left of wonderful Sannox glen, 
stands Cir Mhor, aloft, aloof, filling up in 



6 ARRAN 

solitary grandeur the space between Caisteal 
Abhail and Cioch nan h'oige. Where can we 
see anything as strange and fantastical as this 
group approached from Sannox glen ? 

But, of course, it may be seen from many 
parts of the island, nay, it is difficult to lose, 
it is everywhere, much as the Paps of Jura 
Island are visible over half the Kintyre coast, 
or the Goatfell group are everywhere with us 
when we journey in southern Arran or on the 
coast of Ayr and Renfrew. Mr. Lawton Win- 
gate gives us a charming distant view of this 
range, for instance, from Largybeg ; and a 
mountain climber, Mr. Stewart Orr, has sat 
lovingly close to the heart of the hills through 
dark nights in order to give us his pictures of 
their more intimate and undiscovered moods 
when flushed with the rosy colours of the 
dawn. 

Certainly much of the charm of Arran arises 
from the presence of this stately concourse ; 
but they are not all the hills the island boasts. 
Am Bhinnean in the same neighbourhood has 
many moods, and looks down upon us, from 
above the white cottages and stretch of wood 



THE CHARM OF ARRAN 7 

on the Corrie shore, with all the dignity and 
splendour of a Sultan. 

The Cuchullin range in Skye, though it has 
the upright peaks, lacks the grand horizontal 
lines like that of Suidhe-Feargus, which at 
Sannox are so finely symmetrical, and group 
so superbly round that solemn and inspiring 
spot. 

The next view in point of grandeur is 
perhaps that of Goatfell towering up over the 
woods of Brodick Castle, seen from the cross 
roads, and along the Corrie shore as far as 
Ard na Beithe (point of the birch trees). The 
view, especially on a grey and sultry day, so 
subtly Oriental in suggestion, so wide, so do- 
minated by the bare outline of the great cone 
rising out of the beech woods and pastures, 
cannot be equalled in the West Highlands for 
its power of capturing the senses, save perhaps 
in the approach to Benmore from the Holy 
Loch in Cowal, or the view of the Paps of 
Glencoe from Ballachulish. 



CHAPTER II 

THE LAND BETWEEN SKY AND WATER 

Merrily rocks the boat, 
The Bell-buoy tosses and twirls, 

And the bubbles that shoreward float 
Are as full of colour as pearls. 

AH the hues of the prism they show — 
I The glitter of crimson dyes, 

The orange of sunset glow, 
And the purple of morning skies. 

The sands are a silver sheet, 
And the waves a revel of light. 

Where motion and music meet. 
And colour and form unite. 

From the black cliffs perilous steeps. 
The grass in the gale swings free ; 

The sea in the sunlight leaps, 

And the great clouds dip to the sea. 

David Gow. 

Who again has not, like Mr. David Gow, 
felt the spell of Arran's waters, sparkling and 
flashing with a million white crests, breaking 



THE LAND BETWEEN SKY AND WATER 9 

sharp and clear as crystals on rock and shingle, 
or rolling creamily like liquid amber on some 
smooth stretch of pink-white sand. Its seas, 
too, have a thousand shades of green, from 
fairest olive to deepest emerald ; its burns a 
thousand tones of brown, from that of a dark 
cairngorm stone to the yellow of a cornelian. 
And just so the mists and distances vary in 
shades of grey and blue as delicate as that of 
the mantle of Queen Maev herself, famous in 
Keltic story. The passing shower or the 
passing cloud coming down from the narrow 
seas to northward, or up over Pladda and Ailsa 
Craig ; or the storm-wind from the Atlantic 
that breaks on the shores of her old kinsman 
in legend and in blood, Kintyre ; all these 
reflect jewellery of rare colours upon Arran 
seas and burns and hills. Lying prone be- 
tween sky and water, it vibrates and reflects 
like a sensitive maid all the moods of nature 
— smiles, storms, tears. Certainly if it is 
monotony that kills, then one should live 
longest in Arran, changeful as sweet seventeen 
herself, least monotonous of lands. There 
Nature's hand never stays, is never idle. Com- 



lo ARRAN 

pare it to an Italian coast, where she dawdles 
and languishes under a sky of perpetual blue 
and a blazing sun. East is not more remote 
from west, or north from south, or the 
gorgeous wardrobe of the Queen of Sheba 
from that of a London scullery-maid. 



THE HOLY ISLAND 

Another of Arran's charms is certainly cast 
by the Holy Island in the famous bay of 
Lamlash. There gathered the fleet that 
fought the Saxon King Athelstan at the 
great battle of Brunanburh, made famous in 
the finest of early English poems ; there 
too, many centuries later, came Hakon of 
Norway with his ships, which, tempest aided, 
the Scottish king defeated utterly. Thus 
Arran was made the scene of the last act in 
the Norse incursions on the western coast, as it 
not improbably had been of the first, for it 
must have tempted all comers by its exposed 
position and the wealth of the industrious 
plain of Shisken and Machrie. To the Holy 
Island came also St. Molios, who lived in 



THE LAND BETWEEN SKY AND WATER n 

the cave associated with his name, on the 
walls of which have been deciphered some 
runic characters. These were once held to 
refer to Nicolas, a priest of Argyll ; but a 
writer in The Book of Arran now states 
that they refer to a prosaically named Norse- 
man, possibly a mere trader, one Uilaeikr 
Stallr ; much as the white stone which was 
discovered by Mr. Pickwick was proved to 
bear the words " Bill Stumps, his mark." 
The island, like in shape to a lion couchant, 
forms a most picturesque outpost to the 
southern end of the great bay of Brodick. 



CHAPTER III 

ARRAN'S ROMANCES 

Many races have left their mark on Arran, 
have spilt their blood to hold it, have left their 
romances behind upon its hill-tops and its 
shores to redeem it from the commercialism of 
our time. The men of the Stone Age, of the 
Bronze period, the early Keltic period, did 
each some little to emancipate it from bar- 
barism, till the splendid Dalriadic colonists 
came and finally broke its chains, making it 
partaker for a time of the noblest civilisation 
the world has yet known. But alas ! its 
very wealth brought the Norse sea-rover who 
destroyed all, all but the fighting, clannish 
instinct of the " Kelt " which was to overcome 
the Northman in the end, so that not one 
fragment of all his conquests should remain 
to him. Of course, it is always more easy 



ARRAN'S ROMANCES 13 

to destroy than to create, and so a rough 
hammer may shatter the Portland vase, a 
rough sword the monastery of lona, and all 
the promise of good that lay in Dalriada. 

Arran was at that time no wilderness ; it 
was only six miles distant from the capital of 
a race who had been Christians for some 500 
years, and whose blood it undoubtedly shared : 
a race who were skilled in the arts as their 
forbears in Ireland had been for centuries, 
and possessed some of the learning and the 
refinement which had made Ireland famous, 
and attracted to her shores scholars from 
every nation. The immense difference be- 
tween them and the Norse intruders is 
curiously illustrated in the following passage 
from Mr, Henderson's Norse Influence on 
Celtic Scotland — "The kindly temperament 
of King Brian of Munster, heightened by his 
belief probably, was noticeable to the Saga 
writer, and I may adduce it as a parallel to 
the softening influence which contact with 
the West men sooner or later produced in the 
fierce followers of Odin. ' He (Brian),' says 
the Saga, ' was the best-natured of all kings ; 



14 ARRAN 

thrice would he forgive all outlaws the same 
offence before he had them tried by the law, 
and from this it will be seen what a king he 
must have been.' " 

KING ROBERT BRUCE 

Arran is also famous as the place where 
Robert Bruce sought shelter when in hiding- 
from the soldiers of Edward of England. 
Tradition has it that to avoid his pursuers 
he moved about the island, sheltering at one 
time in the famous Kind's Cave at Drum- 
adoon, and at another at the ancient pre- 
historic fort in beautiful Glen Cloy, called 
Tor na' shian, or Mound of the Fairies, from 
which a view is obtained of the whole of the 
glen. There, too, it is said, when hunted by 
bloodhounds, he used to take exercise by 
wading up and down the Glen Cloy burn at 
High Glen Cloy, where it runs under the 
fine woods of Kilmichael, the home of the 
MacLouies or Fullartons. 

Whether or not the name of Glenrickard, 
which lies above the grounds of Kilmichael, 
refers to the story of Bruce in Glen Cloy, I 



ARRAN'S ROMANCES 15 

cannot say, but the name seems to have no 
connection with the word " Rickard," as the 
Ordnance Department seem to have supposed. 
The pronunciation of a friend, who has lived 
in the glen all his life of some sixty or more 
years, is " Glenreegart," a name derived 
probably from the Gaelic words glen and righ 
and gar^, which give us the glen of the king's 
sanctuary or enclosure. The name may, of 
course, be of earlier origin than the time of 
Bruce, and might have been acquired from 
some legend invented to account for the great, 
twenty feet long, chambered cairn in which 
were buried our remote forbears, chiefs, and 
kings. It is now a children's plaything. 

" Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay, 
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away." 

The site of the original Kilmichael house 
was on the spot where Dr. Robertson- 
Fullarton has erected his observatory, and the 
ruins of Kilmichael Church were still visible 
a little to the north-east of this spot, close 
to the Glen Cloy burn, in Pennant's time. 

Arran has also long been regarded as the 



i6 ARRAN 

scene of the exploits of Fion (Fune) or Finn, 
and many place names tell of him and his 
followers, and of Ossian and Malvina. 
Indeed, many persons have held that the 
much disputed name, Arran, is from Ar Finn, 
the land of Finn, while others state that it 
is from Ar rinn, or land of the peaks ; but 
the evidence seems insufficient to warrant 
a decided judgment in favour of either of 
these theories. It is clear that Fion and 
Ossian never had an existence in actual fact, 
but are of purely mythological origin, like the 
greatGaelic legend in which theyfigure ; but so 
strong was the influence of the old mythology 
in the West at one time, and so saturated 
were the Arran people with the legends of 
the Feinne, that one is inclined to favour the 
definition of Ar Finn. The name of the hill 
Suidhe Feargus, in Glen Sannox, is that of 
Fion's son, and its beautiful outline is well 
worthy of the great romance linked with its 
name. 












■':/V.^*hv"''il 









ARRAN'S ROMANCES 17 

CROMWELL AND ARRAN 

During the wars of Charles l the Hamiltons 
stood for the King, but Brodick Castle was 
held at different times by both parties, and 
when the Earl of Stafford was about to reduce 
the West of Scotland to obedience, Argyll, with 
the Covenanters, took possession of Brodick. 
In 1644 the Marquis was created Duke of 
Hamilton for his services to Charles, but paid 
for his loyalty with his head when the Par- 
liament finally overthrew the King. The 
Dutch ships were at that time hovering about 
the Outer Hebrides, and Cromwell's govern- 
ment had fear of them seizing the islands. 
They therefore garrisoned Brodick, and built 
the tower on the north-east side. The 
islanders, however, were enraged at the 
execution of their chief, and resented also the 
rough manners of the soldiery, who insulted 
their wives and daughters. They therefore 
set a trap for them when they were out 
foraging, and after chasing them along the 
Corrie shore, caught them at Sannox, and 
put them to the sword, the last being slain. 



i8 ARRAN 

according to tradition, at the " Killing Stone," 
on the Sannox shore. The next duke fought 
and died for Charles ii. at Worcester, and 
with him were present the islanders, together 
with the other Highland clans. 



PART II 
HISTORICAL REMAINS 



CHAPTER IV 

ARRAN'S ANCIENT CHAPELS 

Most interesting of the old churches of 
Arran is the little chapel of St. Bride at Lam- 
lash, where rest the remains of many genera- 
tions of Arran people. In old times, possibly 
before the use of Kilbride graveyard, the 
burial-ground on the Holy Island was also 
popular as a burying-place. 

KILBRIDE 

In 1357 the churches of Kilbride and 
Kilmory were given by the lord of Arran, 
Sir John Menteith, to the monks of Kilmory, 
with their chapels. The charter of King 
David XL, confirming the gift, is of some 
interest. It reads as follows — "To all the chil- 
dren of the blessed Mother Church now living, 
or yet to be born, who may see or hear these 



22 ARRAN 

present writings, read : — John of Menteith, 
lord of Arran and of Knapdale. Health in 
the Lord for ever. Know that I for the 
good of my soul, and that of Katherine my 
late wife, and for the good of the souls of our 
ancestors and successors, have given, granted, 
and by this present charter of mine, confirmed 
to God and the blessed Virgin Mary, to 
good Wynnyn and to the monastery of 
Kylwynne in Conyngham, to the abbots and 
monks there worshipping God, and to those 
who will worship him there for ever, the right 
of presentation and patronage of the churches 
of St. Mary and St. Bride in the island of 
Arran, with their chapels, and with all other 
properties which to the said churches, with 
their chapels and lands, by right belong, to 
be held and possessed by the said monastery 
and monks for ever, with all rights belonging 
to them in fee-simple, and perpetual alms." 

In 1452 James 11. gave the crown lands 
of Kilbride and Kilmory, which yielded an 
annual rent of ^56, i8s. 8d., to the Canons of 
Glasgow for a sum of eight hundred marks 
which had been lent by them to the King. 



ANCIENT CHAPELS 23 

In 1540 the lands had again come Into the 
possession of the crown, and Kilbride was 
then granted to Sir James Hamilton with 
the Earldom of Arran. Innes says the 
church stood originally on the north-west 
shore of Lamlash bay, on the spot marked in 
Blaeu's map " Marknaheglish." There are a 
few sculptured stones of interest in the grave- 
yard, but many more have been destroyed. 
The most interesting and important was the 
ancient cross, which for many years lay on 
the family grave of the late Mr. John Mac- 
Bride, who formerly farmed the Holy Island. 
On the removal of the stones from the burial- 
ground there he brought it to Kilbride. It 
has been recently removed to the front of the 
parish church at Lamlash. Stones of this 
type were often erected in graveyards where 
no church stood, to mark the sacred character 
of the place. 

KILMORY 

Innes and the New Statistical Account 
state that the old church of Kilmory stood 
on the farm of Bennicarigan. The foundation 



24 ARRAN 

stone showed a building of nineteen feet by 
ten feet, and around it were some ancient 
gravestones. The graveyard is still in use. 

The church was granted to the monks of 
Kilwinning in 1357, at which time Sir Bean 
not "Saint Bean," as has been stated ("Sir" 
was the ordinary title of a priest), was Rector. 
Kilmory is supposed to have passed to the 
Hamiltons in 1503. 

The present church was built in 1785. 
Kilmory Well was at one time famous on 
account of its supposed miraculous healing 
properties. 

SHISKEN CHAPEL 

The old chapel or cell of St, Molios stood 
in the centre of the present graveyard, on the 
spot now railed in as a grave by the Thomson 
family. The famous sculptured figure, always 
supposed to represent St. Molios, stood upon 
this spot. Mr. Charles Mac Bride of Shedag, 
who tested the place with a spade some time 
ago, "came upon stone and lime," as he 
cautiously puts it. This was probably part of 
the foundation of the old chapel of the saint. 



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ANCIENT CHAPELS 25 

The sculptured stone has lately been built 
into the wall of the neighbouring modern 
church of St. Molios. It represents an abbot 
with his pastoral staff, holding a chalice in his 
hands. 

The hamlet or clachan of St. Molios, which 
grew up round his cell, stood on the site of 
the now dismantled chapel of Kilmichael close 
by. The position of the old graveyard and 
ruined church at the entrance to the glen, with 
the burn in the foreground, is one of the most 
picturesque and truly old-world sights in 
Arran. 

SANNOX CHAPEL 

Of Sannox Chapel there is no vestige left. 
At the entrance of the beautifully situated 
graveyard the figure of an ecclesiastic has 
been built for safety into the stone dike. It is 
supposed to represent the saint to whom the 
chapel was dedicated. Even his name is not 
quite certain, but the place is supposed to 
have been dedicated to St. Michael, like so 
many churches in the West Highlands. In 
the graveyard were buried the remains of 



26 ARRAN 

Edwin R. Rose, the young English tourist 
who was so cruelly murdered by a stranger 
named Laurie, on Goatfell, in July 1889. A 
rouorh boulder-stone covers his orrave. 

GLEN ASHDALE CHAPEL 

There was once a chapel in Glen Ashdale, 
in size about ten feet by twelve. Both chapel 
and burial-ground are now almost indistin- 
guishable, like that in Glen Cloy. There 
were also chapels, as the names suggest, at 
Kilbride Bennan, at Kilpatrick, at Balnacula 
(St. Eoin's), at Auchengallon, at Lochranza 
(St. Bride's), and at Kildonan. 



CHAPTER V 

ARRAN'S CASTLES 

Of old Brodick Castle only one end, and the 
stones used by the old builders and part of 
the plan and outline, now remain. It has been 
practically rebuilt many times, and was com- 
pletely modernised in the middle of the 
nineteenth century. None the less, there are 
few castles can compare with it in associations, 
and fewer still have been taken and re-taken 
as often as Brodick. In the re-building of 
1844, referred to, a heavy tower was built up 
on the remains of the old walls, and one 
winter's night the tower fell with a tremendous 
crash. Brodick's chief interest lies now in its 
splendid position and its associations with a 
hundred wild forays, with fire and with sword. 
Among the keepers of Arran Castle have 

been — 

27 



28 ARRAN 

A.D. 

1296 Sir John Stewart of Menteith. 
(about) 

1305 Thomas Bisset of the Glens, in Ireland, and 
(about) of Rathlin. 

1306 Sir John Hastings. 

1313 Sir John Stewart of Menteith. 

1445 William Stewart (nephew of Robert 11.). 

1488 Hugh, Lord Montgomery. 

1526 George Tait. 

1579 Ninian Stewart. 

1586 Patrick Hamilton. 

1588 Paul Hamilton. 

LOCHRANZA CASTLE 

One of the finest sights in the West High- 
lands is the old royal castle of Lochranza, 
standing, superbly set, on its narrow peninsula 
of sand, with the water at its feet and the crags 
above, and all the wealth of reds and browns 
of the sea margin giving the place its wonder- 
ful colouring. The cottages and hills and 
distant view down Glen Chamadale add 
another interest to a picture already wild and 
lovely. 

The castle, once a royal residence or hunt- 
ing lodge, is now in ruins, though only one hun- 



CASTLES 29 

dredand forty years ago it was seemingly quite 
habitable. Its plan is that of a typical Scottish 
castle, rather better than the mere peel tower. 
On the first floor the hall measured some 74 ft. 
by 23 ft., and was lit by three windows. The 
floor was boarded, at any rate in later times. The 
castle possessed the luxury of a kitchen, and 
on the first floor was also another room. The 
place is mentioned by Fordun in 1400. It was 
given by John of Menteith to Duncan Camp- 
bell of Lochawe in 1433, ^^^ ^^ ^445 was occu- 
pied by Ronald MacAllister as Captain, at 
which time he was also tenant of certain crown 
lands in the island, for which he paid a rent of 
/^i6, 6s. 8d., and twelve bolls of bear. As 
Donal Balloch had about this time laid his 
lands waste, MacAllister refused to pay his 
rent. The castle and lands of Lochranza, 
Cattadell, the two Tonregeys (now barbar- 
ously called Thundergay), and other lands 
were given by James 11. to Alexander, Lord 
Montgomery. His grandson was created 
Earl of Eglinton, and in 1488 was keeper of 
Brodick Castle. In 1661 it was still in the 
possession of the same family. In 1685 it 



30 ARRAN 

passed to the Montgomeries of Skelmorlie, 
and early in the next century passed to the 
Hamiltons. 

The chapel of St. Bride, mentioned by 
Scott as possessing a convent, where dwelt 
Isabel and the Maid of Lome, stood on 
the beach, but not a trace now remains to 
show the spot. 



THE GEOLOGY OF ARRAN 

Arran has been said to be in itself an epi- 
tome of geology, and in that respect it is 
unique. Briefly, the Devonian sandstone ex- 
tends from the east to some five miles inland, 
and from Brodick takes a turn to the south- 
west. Trap-rock and carboniferous strata 
occur in the west and centre of the island. 
The central granite portion includes the great 
hills of Goatfell, Cir Mhor and Casteal Abhail. 
On the north-east and south the granite is 
joined by mica slate ; on the south-east and 
north by lower Silurian rocks, which are met 
on the east and south by Devonian sandstone, 
while lias and oolite lie above the mica slate. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE CAVES OF ARRAN 

fingal's cave 

Close to the great fort at Drumadoon is the 
famous cave at the base of the hill known as 
Tor an Righ, or King's Hill, which the sea 
has worn out of the sandstone. The roof 
is arched, and the place lofty and spacious, 
and on the walls are primitive drawings of 
dogs and horses engaged in the chase, prob- 
ably dating from prehistoric times, and, 
according to tradition, intended to represent 
Fion. In this cave also Bruce and his fol- 
lowers found shelter during their wanderings 
in the island, and there are the " King's kit- 
chen," stable, and larder. 

THE PREACHING CAVE AT KILPATRICK 

Enoucrh of fame attaches to the ereat cave at 
Drumadoon, for has it not sheltered both the 



32 ARRAN 

gods in the person of Fion and his friends, 
and kings in the person of Bruce ? Has it 
not also been of service to common humanity 
in sheltering many a keg of good spirits, 
many a bale of good silk, many a pound of 
fragrant tobacco ? Has it not seen more than 
one tussle between the men of the Revenue 
cutters which sailed up and down watching 
the audacious smugglers of Arran and 
Kintyre ? Was not a daring member of the 
Clan Innain shot somewhere in these parts in 
an encounter of the kind ? So Drumadoon, 
having served all classes, gods, kings, lords, 
and commons, need not usurp the glory of 
the cave in which another member of the 
Clan MacKinnon made his mark as one of 
the many noted preachers of Arran. In this 
cave Mr. Peter Craig, a man greatly liked 
for his ability and his geniality, held a school 
for many years which rivalled that of the 
village schoolmaster, and turned out many 
good scholars, who afterwards filled import- 
ant positions in Glasgow and other towns. 

The Preaching Cave was also sometimes 
used for the ordinary Sunday services. 



THE CAVES OF ARRAN 33 

Largest of all the Arran caves is that known 
as the Monster Cave at Bennan Head, which 
has also been used for religious services at 
different times. Many ancient stone imple- 
ments and other remains of primitive life 
have been found amongst the rubbish on the 
floor of this place. 

The early Scottish missionaries made use 
of many of the caves of the West Highlands 
as dwelling-places, and it has been suggested 
by Mr. Lyteill that the word "Piper's" cave so 
often applied to them is really the word Pypar, 
a priest. The dog and piper story which we 
have all heard would thus probably have 
arisen from the supposition that the word 
referred to the ordinary profane piper. 

THE WONDROUS BAUL OF SAINT MULUY 

Martin, in his Western Islands, published in 
1703, gives a description of the famous heal- 
ing-stone which is still preserved by the Craw- 
ford family. Martin says : "I had like to have 
forgot a valuable curiosity in this isle, which 
they call ' Baul muluy,' i.e. Molingus, his 
3 



34 ARRAN 

Stone Globe. This saint was Chaplain to 
MackDonald of the Isles ; his name is cele- 
brated here on account of this Globe, so much 
esteemed by the inhabitants. This stone, for 
its intrinsic value, has been carefully trans- 
mitted to posterity for several ages. It is a 
green stone, much like a globe in figure, about 
the bigness of a goose egg. The virtues of 
it is to remove stitches from the sides of sick 
persons, by laying it close to the place affected, 
and if the patient does not outlive the dis- 
temper they say the stone moves out of the 
bed of its own accord, and e contra. The natives 
use this stone for swearing decisive oaths upon 
it. They ascribe another extraordinary virtue 
to it, and 'tis this — the credulous vulgar firmly 
believe that if this stone is cast among the 
front of an enemy they will all run away, and 
that as often as the enemy rallies, if this stone 
is cast among them, they will lose courage and 
retire. 

"They say that MackDonald of the Isles 
carried this stone about him, and that victory 
was always on his side when he threw it 
among the enemy. The custody of this globe 



THE CAVES OF ARRAN 



35 



is the peculiar privilege of a little family called 
Clan Chattons, alias Mackintosh. They were 
ancient followers of MackDonald of the Isles. 
This stone is now in the custody of Margaret 
Miller, alias Mackintosh. She lives at Bell- 
mianich, and preserves the globe with abund- 
ance of care. It is wrapped in a fair linen 
cloath, and about that there is a piece of 
woollen cloath, and she keeps it still locked up 
in her chest, when it is not given out to exert 
its qualities." 

One has to be careful of these things, and 
it is well to note that the ball has one serious 
disadvantage, which those who may wish to 
avail themselves of its healing qualities 
should keep in remembrance, else they might 
be regarded as guilty of manslaughter or 
worse. It is that, when the person who carries 
the globe enters the house of the sick person, 
the first living thing that crosses the line of 
his path must die, whether it be as small as a 
butterfly or as large as the ploughman and 
four horses who, happening to get into the 
same latitude, fell down dead in Glen Scorra 
some time since. 



36 ARRAN 

It is a little discouraging to know that the 
globe is somewhat damaged through misad- 
venture, showing clearly that the physician 
had not power to heal itself. 

As to its quality in aiding swearing it is also 
a little out of date, and we doubt a week in 
Cowcaddens, the Candlerigs, or in White- 
chapel would fit one out with a fuller vocab- 
ulary than even Baul Muluy. 



PART III 

ARRAN IN THE EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY 



CHAPTER VII 

THAT I WERE THERE!* 

Roofless the walls and all around is dreary, 

Cold the ingle-side and bare, 
Men called it home, 'tis now the wild bird's eyrie, 

Yet I would that I were there ! 

Just to feel the wild wet breezes swirling 

O'er the water and the whin. 
To see the peat-reek o'er the cottage curling 

And the hairst folk winning in. 

To see the glens in Autumn's colours tender, 

And the black Ben's misty wreath. 
The birk and the breckan's dying splendour. 

And the roaring linn beneath. 

To see the foam from the white beach flying 
And the boats leap through the waves, 

And the ring of golden sea-tang lying 
Strayed from Atlantic's caves. 

To hear again the beach-nuts falling, falling, 

When the plantin's winning bare. 
To hear again the paitricks calling, calling. 

Oh, would that I were there ! 

M'K. M'B. 

* IV/ik acknowledgments to " The Spectator^'' 



40 ARRAN 

ARRAN IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
THE OLD RUNRIG SYSTEM 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century 
Arran was in much the same condition as the 
rest of the Highlands : the men tilled the lands 
of their forefathers and ate the crops they 
grew. They fished and shot game without 
hindrance,* and the chiefs were more anxious 
that there should exist on the land a hardy 
race of strong men who could wield a clay- 
more than to know what he received in bolls 
of meal from the "kindly tenants" of the 
lordship. The whole idea of Highland life 
was in most districts still patriarchal : the 
Highland chief had not developed into the 
modern landlord. 

In places like Arran, Bute, and Kintyre, 
there was seldom a scarcity of food, and the 
men of these parts possessed exceptional 
hardihood. In Arran and Kintyre especially, 
the old stories of feats of strength were plenti- 
ful twenty years ago. Mr. Neil Munro has 

* See the present writer's paper on The Rights of the 
Individual under the Clan System. 



m 



'Mi 






m 



■:>^. 






'^msm 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 41 

given us an interesting, and I think well-con- 
sidered, picture of the mainland of Argyll 
fifty to seventy years earlier in his John 
Splendid, showing that the conditions of life 
as regards food were eminently suitable for 
the rearing of strong men and women. It is 
true that some of the Highland lairds, who 
held by the charter rather than by the sword, 
attempted to maintain a semi-feudal state of 
things, and had become aggressive, but they 
were the exception, and it seems to me that 
even the occasional tyranny of these men was 
better than the purely commercial relations 
between rich and poor, chief and clansman, 
which came into existence after the long 
absence of the attainted chiefs who took part 
in the Rising of 1745. Recently published 
letters show the intimate relations which 
existed in old times between the rich and 
poor, the chief and his clansmen, and the great 
difference that followed upon the return of the 
chiefs. 

The late Mr. Patrick Murray thus de- 
scribes the rise in the value of land which 
was then taking place in Scotland and 



42 ARRAN 

England, due to the growth of industry and 
other causes : — 

" The country assumed a settled condition 
to which it had long been strange. The first 
of our countrymen began to return from the 
Indies with fortunes acquired in our posses- 
sions there — new life was given to industry 
and enterprise of every kind, and the trade of 
Glasgow and the country generally made a 
fresh and vigorous start. As a consequence 
of all this the price of land rose considerably 
from the low level at which it had long stood, 
and landlords in different parts of Scotland 
took to farming on new and improved 
methods. Although it may seem strange 
now, these were introduced from England, 
and English servants and implements of 
husbandry were brought to Scotland for this 
purpose. Lord Eglinton was one of the first 
in this part of the country to set the example 
on a large scale, and his English servants 
introduced drill husbandry and the culture of 
turnips into Ayrshire. At the peace of 1763 
large fortunes made during the war with great 
rapidity were brought home and invested in 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 43 

land, and money diffused itself amongst all 
classes. The price of corn rose at least one- 
third. The price of cattle, which had almost 
doubled in the previous thirty years, rose in 
1766 still higher. Farming and improve- 
ments became the fashion, and every country 
gentleman took to them on a greater or less 
scale. 

"The farms were let on leases of nineteen 
years' duration, and at their entry to them the 
tenants had paid a grassum, which was the 
last of this custom in Arran. These leases 
began to expire in 1766, the greater part of 
them falling out in 1772. In view of this, the 
tutors of the Duke of Hamilton, who was then 
a minor, determined to set about the improve- 
ment of the island, and appointed Mr. John 
Burrell, their factor at Kinneil, to reset the 
tacks and to advise the measures to be adopted 
for improvement, and to direct the operations 
resolved on." 

JOHN BURRELL 

This man played an important part in the 
later history of Arran. He was, judging by 



44 



ARRAN 



name, probably English or of English origin. 
He was a perfect stranger, at any rate, and 
there is no one like a stranger for the work 
if you want the old landmarks removed, for 
a stranger knows no traditions, feels no senti- 
mental scruples. This the Highland land- 
lords realised perfectly a little later when they 
wished to evict the old tillers of the soil to 
make room for sheep or deer. 

Mr. Murray says : "In carrying out his 
commission Mr. Burrell visited Arran from 
1766 to 1782, at least nine times, for periods 
ranging from one to four months. He made 
what he calls a ' strict survey ' of every farm, 
and reported fully his whole doings in the 
island. 

HIS SCHEME OF IMPROVEMENT 

" Of all his schemes, the most important was 
the making of enclosures, on which work large 
sums were spent by the proprietor on his 
recommendation. An overseer and workmen 
were brought from the mainland to make the 
dikes on several farms as a sample of what 
was wanted, and afterwards the tenants them- 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 45 

selves were encouraged to do the work. 
Forty spades were ordered from Ayrshire to 
begin with, but Arran smiths were allowed 
to try their hands on more. The old turf 
dykes which are still to be seen in the island, 
some of them outside the limits of the arable 
land, are part of those laid out by Mr. Burrell 
at this time. Those at Drumadoon and at 
Torbeg and Tormore were some of the first 
made, and also those at Blairbeg, but in re- 
setting the tacks a certain amount was stipu- 
lated to be done on every farm at the 
proprietor's expense. He opened the lime 
quarry in the Clachan Glen, and also the 
slate quarry at Lochranza. He made a 
trial for coal at the Cock Farm, and put down 
a bore at Clauchlands. He inveighed against 
the barbarous system of runrig and rundale 
which the tenantry of the Island of Arran 
were so fond of. He lamented the extrava- 
gant number of horses kept by the tenants, 
and ordered that a plough and oxen should 
be sent to the island, and a premium given to 
the tenant who first ploughed his land with 
oxen. In short, to quote his own words — 



46 ARRAN 

* Many a serious thought and contemplation 
the memorialist has bestowed upon the culti- 
vation and improvement of this island which 
had the effect to produce many a different 
idea.' " 

The older families had exceptional rights, 
many of them the remains of their original 
proprietorship or of privileges granted long ago 
to their ancestors. Mr. Burrell introduced 
new men from Argyll and the low country, 
and gave them the same rights and privileges, 
or rather restricted the old rights to the same 
level as those granted to the new-comers, 
naturally causing much heartburning and dis- 
content amongst the old clans of the island. 



THE GREAT REVOLUTION 

" At that time," Mr. Murray says, " farms in 
the island were arranged so that the whole 
were out of lease at one time in the year 
1776. This was done to admit of rectification 
of marches and a better division of the farms 
and of the interior or hill grazings. . . . This, 
we may be sure, was a serious enough business 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 47 

for both parties, but it did not altogether take 
the heart out of the tenants." 

Of course the greatest revolution Mr. 
Burrell effected was in the conversion of 
the old runrig farms into lots or separate hold- 
ings. By the runrig system the farm was 
cultivated in strips by four to ten or more 
tenants, generally of the same family. The 
strips changed hands every two years. The 
plan was interesting, and essentially com- 
munistic in character. Mr. Burrell viewed 
it with horror, though it really stood upon a 
higher moral basis than the competitive method 
which followed. Nor was there anything 
inherently bad in it commercially, or need 
why it should fail, provided the farm and the 
individual strips were large enough to support 
the men who tilled them. 

So far from reflecting upon the intelli- 
gence of the men who adopted it, as Mr. 
Burrell and Mr. Murray thought it did, the 
runrig system was based on a principle on 
which we are acting little by little to-day — 
the principle of real co-operation. Loudon 
says of it : " Absurd as the common field 



48 ARRAN 

system is at this day, it was admirably suited 
to the circumstances in which it originated, 
the plan having been conceived in wisdom, 
and executed with extraordinary accuracy." 

A kind of administrative committee, which 
was formed apparently by Mr. Burrell himself 
in i77o,included the following members: John 
Burrell, George Couper, William MacGregor, 
Patrick Hamilton, John Hamilton, Gershom 
Stewart (minister of Kilbride), Duncan Mac- 
Bride, John Pette, John Fullarton, Gavin 
Fullarton, John Hamilton, Thomas Brown, 
William Ogg, Hector MacAllister, Alexander 
MacGregor, John MacCook, and Adam 
Fullarton. Of these at least four were directly 
or indirectly employed by the Arran estate 
manager, while ten of the whole number 
were dependent on the Hamilton interest, and 
bound to support Mr. Burrell's measures ; so 
that this committee cannot be taken as a 
popularly representative one for the whole 
island, anything of the nature of popular 
government being as yet unknown. 

The chief matter discussed was the question 
of a scheme for a service of packet boats run- 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 49 

ning between the island and Saltcoats. Other 
matters decided by the committee were — 

Rogue and road money, and statute labour on the roads. 

The suming and rouming of the island, which was im- 
mediately carried into execution. 

Tenants to keep herds and to fold their cattle every night, 
according to Act of Parliament. 

Multures to be commuted for a fixed payment per boll 
meal for grinding. 

Sheep to be marked, and no cattle or sheep to be killed 
without calling together a jury of the three nearest neigh- 
bours. 

All weights and measures to be taken to the castle, and 
compared with Ayr weights and measures. 

With a view to encouraging improvements 
in husbandry in 1776, premiums were offered 
to the tenants as follows : — 

To the tenant who shall produce the best three-year-old 
humbled bull of his own property, not under the value of 
£10 stg. — 5 guineas. 

To the tenant who shall produce the best two-year-old tup 
of Bakewell and Chaplin kind — full blood — not under the 
value of £-, stg. — 2J guineas. 

To the tenant who shall produce the best three-year-old 
entire horse, not under the value oi £i-, stg., and not above 1 5 
hands high — 7^ guineas. 

To the tenant who shall have the best field of turnips, not 
under 3 acres, sown broad-cast after a summer fallow by 
3 ploughings, and manured — 6 guineas. And to him who 
shall have the best field not under 3 acres, in drills 2^ feet 
distance, horsehoed no less than 3 times, and the ground 
well manured — 5 guineas. 
4 



50 



ARRAN 



To the tenant who shall have the best field of cabbages, 
not less than 2 acres, well prepared, planted at 4 feet distance 
'twixt rows, and ij feet distance in the rows, which will take 
about 20,000 plants — to be three times horsehoed (which, 
at 4 lbs. a plant, will fatten in 9 weeks 16 head of cattle, 
which should sell at £2, advance, or ^24 an acre) — shall have 
6 guineas. 

To the tenant who shall have the first 10 acres enclosure 
finished in terms of the articles — 5 guineas. 

To the tenant who shall have the greatest quantity and 
best quality of wheat upon enclosed ground, and after a 
thorough summer fallow of 5 furrows, sufficiently manured, 
and no less than 2 acres — 2 guineas. 

To the tenant who shall have the greatest quantity of 
clover and rye-grass hay from at least 2 acres, sown with 
barley or wheat, after summer fallow, of 5 furrows, and pro- 
perly manured, and not less than 100 stones an acre, and 
upon enclosed ground — 2 guineas. 

Amongst the prize-winners in the two years 
following were Angus MacKillop, Alexander 
Thomson, Patrick Crawford, Robert Shaw, 
John Currie, and Alexander MacKinnon. 

The Duke also obtained the services of an 
experienced fisherman, one Andrew Wilson, 
to teach the art of line fishing to any of the 
islanders who applied to him. 



SMUGGLING IN ARRAN 

As on other parts of the coast, at this time a 
good deal of money was made by the natives 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 51 

out of smuggling — possibly more than was in 
many cases made out of their crofts. Mr. 
Murray says : " No notice of Arran at this 
time is possible without a reference to the 
making and smuggling of the famous * Arran 
water.' In spite of gaugers, excise officers, 
and frequent seizures of malt and whisky, it 
was persevered in. As the Arran people are 
pre-eminently law-abiding, I can only account 
for this peculiarity on the supposition that 
the product of their stills was so very good 
that they could not find it in their hearts to 
believe that any law could make the making 
of it bad. I find a list of 32 stills in Arran in 
1784, of which 23 were in the south end. In 
that year an Act of Parliament was passed for 
the licensing of small stills in the Highlands 
of Scotland, by which proprietors were made 
liable, along with their tenants, for the heavy 
fines imposed in case of the latter being con- 
victed of illicit distillation. After the passing 
of the Act 26 stills were collected and carried to 
the Castle. In 1797, when illicit distillation 
would appear to have been at its height, a 
letter from Arran describes whisky as a perfect 



52 ARRAN 

drug in the market — it being supposed there 
were no less than 50 stills at the south end of 
the island. At that time the whole annual 
produce of here (from 500 to 2000 quarters), 
would appear to have been used in the Island 
for distilling. It suffered no decrease until, 
in the early years of the nineteenth century, 
the Duke of Hamilton threatened to dis- 
possess any tenant convicted of illicit distilla- 
tion, and from that time it appears to have 
decreased, and then disappeared entirely. In 
the malt kiln, the ruins of which are still stand- 
ing in the grounds of the Whitehouse, there was 
a licensed still of the capacity of forty gallons, 
from which, from December 1793 to Novem- 
ber 1794, whisky was sold to the amount of 
;!^5oo at 2s. per Scotch pint, or 4s. per gallon." 
Every one, including the Duke and Mr. 
Burrell, was shocked at the smuggling, and 
for it the islanders were roundly abused by 
the ministers. 

FAMOUS ARRAN PREACHERS 

It must not be supposed from this, however, 
that Arran was a drunken island. Mr. Pater- 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 53 

son, writing in 1830, says emphatically that 
it was not so, and Arran was prolific in 
preachers. The Rev. J. Kennedy Cameron 
says in his Memoir of the Rev. John Mac- 
Allister : " Smuggling was common in 
Arran at that time, and John MacAlister 
took his share in smuggling adventures 
like the rest. But a religious revival 
arose in Kilmorie, under the preaching of the 
parish minister, the Rev. Neil MacBride, and 
among the awakened people were Angus 
MacMillan, Finlay and Archibald Cook, 
Peter Davidson, Archibald Nicol, and John 
MacAlister — men who afterwards attained a 
great deal of religious influence throughout 
the HiQ^hlands." 

And of course Arran was not the only 
place in which there was smuggling. It was 
carried on also in Kintyre and Galloway, and 
on every other coast of Scotland, including Mr. 
Burrell's own neighbourhood of the Forth ! 
In the Essex district, to which reference has 
been made, it went on to an enormous extent, 
the houses of the wealthy, and even the 
very churches, being used as storehouses in 



54 ARRAN 

which to hide spirits and other smuggled 
articles. 

So that, though we can appreciate the 
valuable picture Mr. Burrell's diary gives us 
of the Arran of his day, we must remember 
that it was impossible for him to view things 
from the native's point of view. He supplies 
us with the facts, but we must ourselves put 
in the pinches of salt if we would get at the 
truth, without doing injustice to the men of 
our own hearths who lived through that time 
of revolution and bitter disillusionment in 
Arran and the Highlands generally. 

For example, Mr. Burrell shows that hus- 
bandry was old-fashioned and poor, that there 
were no proper roads in the modern sense, 
that the bridges were of wood, the connection 
with the mainland irregular, letters being 
delivered haphazard as opportunity offered. 
That the boat fare to Ayr was 15s., that the 
boats were badly constructed and deficient in 
the matter of tackle, and that the whole of 
the island, save the park of Brodick Castle, 
was unenclosed. 

But of course we must not assume that 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 55 

Arran was the only place without roads, or was 
necessarily behind very many, if not most, 
other districts of England and Scotland. 

We are told that the first manure ever ap- 
plied to land in Ayrshire was in 1758 and 
1760. In Essex we read of a road having 
been ploughed with the object of levelling the 
ruts ; and that in 1 768 " no road ever equalled 
that from Billericay to the King's Head at 
Tilbury. It is for nearly twelve miles so 
narrow that a mouse cannot pass by any car- 
riage. . . . The ruts are of an incredible depth 
. . . and I must not forget the eternally 
meeting with chalk-waggons, themselves fre- 
quently stuck fast, till a collection of them are 
in the same situation, and twenty or thirty 
horses may be tacked to each to draw them 
out one by one." 

Nor were the manners of the people all that 
could be desired, even in this enlightened 
county so near London. " The men were 
notoriously drunken, and the clergy ignorant, 
intemperate, and neglectful. It is said that the 
farmers who met at a certain Rochford hos- 
telry used to set a hen on their arrival, and 



56 ARRAN 

would continue their drinking bout until the 
chickens were hatched." * 

Very different is the description of the 
Arran people given by Pennant and by 
Paterson, a later factor of the island, who 
says : "In moral character the people of 
Arran . . . are hospitable amongst themselves 
and to strangers. They are more confiding 
in each other than is altogether prudent. 
The money and other property of the more 
fortunate among them are freely lent to those 
in need, often when there is but a slight pro- 
spect of repayment. To their aged and 
infirm relations they are generally kind and 
dutiful, and scarcely any are ever allowed to 
beg their bread. . . . The people of Arran 
may justly be described as a religious com- 
munity ... so far as recollected, there is not 
a single native who can with justice be called 
a drunkard." 

It would have been well if those later 
writers upon Arran, like the Rev. Mr. Mac- 
Arthur, who talk of the introduction amongst 
its people of " the more practical and enlight- 

* Rambles round Southend, by the present writer. 




m 



^. 



m 



tf^^a^i 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 57 

ened views of their lowland neighbours," 
had looked round to see what their lowland 
and English neighbours actually did before 
making their unkind reflections. 



THE ARRAN EVICTIONS 

Mr. Burrell was a man of exceptional 
ability, and introduced many valuable agri- 
cultural reforms, but his hand was undoubtedly, 
against the natives, and the inevitable result of 
the " lotting " of the island into large farms 
and the restriction of the hill grazings, was that 
wholesale evictions followed about the year 
1 81 2 to 1 81 5. ' Again, about the year 182 1, 
it is stated that 500 persons were sent away 
chiefly from the Sannox district. About 
half the passage money was paid by the 
Duke, who also obtained for them grants of 
land from Government amounting to 100 
acres per family. Many of the people 
settled in lower Canada and Chaleur Bay. The 
Rev. Alexander MacBride states in his New 
Statistical Account of Kilmory, that many of 
the ejected families emigrated to North 



58 ARRAN 

America but by far the greater number 
removed to Ayrshire towns. 

But long prior to this, in 1770, five years 
after Mr. Burrell's advent, the people were 
leaving the old home which was undergoing 
so radical an alteration. In that year 
Burrell considers that it was dangerous to 
suspend the "Baron" Court for six months, 
" finding that so many people intending for 
America, to leave the place at the time 
without a judge would be leaving it in the 
power of these emigrants to rob both his 
grace and their neighbours." > 

The suggestion that Highlanders would 
at that time rob their own unfortunate kins- 
folk, when themselves broken-hearted at the 
prospect of leaving all they knew and loved, 
seems wanton and without justification in fact 
or precedent. It is fortunately clear from his 
own arrangement made previously, to defer 
the sitting of the Baron Court for six months 
(which he thus wished to alter), that the men 
of Arran could not have been other than the 
quiet, law-abiding folk visitors find them 
to-day. Imagine us in 19 10 deferring the 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 59 

sittings of a court for six months in a com- 
munity of six thousand persons ! 

Of course bitter feelings and keen opposi- 
tion were aroused by the revolutionary 
changes, just as in the years following the 
introduction of the black-faced sheep (from 
about 1790) and the consequent clearing 
of the Sannox district, we are told by an- 
other able and not unkindly factor of the 
estate, John Paterson, that the people "opposed 
the changes in every way short of physical 
resistance." It is made clear in the " Diary " 
that Burrell's stern and iconoclastic measures 
had roused the people to hatred and despair, 
and he complains of them plotting against 
the Duke. 

Whatever else they accomplished, Mr. 
Burrell's efforts do not seem to have im- 
proved the comfort of the people, for we are 
told that about 18 10 the condition of all 
save the few big tacksmen was miserable, 
that their houses were the meanest hovels, 
while they were clad in the coarsest garments 
of home manufacture. 

It seems that, as happened with the in- 



6o ARRAN 

troduction of purely commercial methods into 
England, the people were robbed of many 
privileges and perquisites which they had long 
reofarded as their own. Their condition thus 
became worse than it was in 1766, when 
the changes commenced, though it is pre- 
tended by Mr. MacArthur and others that in 
the Highlands all good things followed the 
introduction of modern methods after the 
Forty-five, when strangers of Mr. Burrell's 
type were set to work to " reform "the High- 
lands by reducing men and things therein to 
what Mr. Cunningham Graham would call 
their " lowest common multiple " — the prin- 
ciple of commercialism. In this work it is to 
be feared that many of the old ministers un- 
consciously lent a hand, by their efforts to 
beat the harmless and already well-cudgelled 
natives into "reform." For in their ardour 
they were unable to discriminate between 
those customs that lent gaiety and bright- 
ness to Highland life, and were in them- 
selves a valuable possession which made 
for refinement, and those which were really 
harmful. 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 6i 
WHAT PENNANT SAW 

Pennant, an Englishman, writing in 1776, 
or just ten years after Mr. Burrell was sent to 
modernise Arran, says : " The men (of Arran) 
are strong, tall, and well made ... all speak 
the Erse language. Their diet is chiefly pota- 
toes and meal, and during winter some dried 
mutton or goat is added to their hard fare. 
A deep dejection appears in general through 
the countenances of all : no time can be spared 
for amusement of any kind, the whole being 
given for procuring the means of paying their 
rent, of laying in their fuel, or getting in a 
scanty pittanceofmeatand clothing." Pennant, 
in 1 77 1, again points out that the farms were 
" set by roup or auction, and advanced by un- 
natural force to above double the old rent." 
He says further that "the late rents were scarce 
;^i200 a year ; the expected rents ^3000." 

The actual rent-roll of the island in the year 
1778 was roundly, according to Mr. Burrell's 
own figures, ^5550, or with some additions 
^5880. 

From this it will be seen how greatly his 



62 ARRAN 

efforts had improved his employer's property, 
and had stimulated the rent-roll, while they 
had ruined and impoverished the lives of 
the people. 

As a contrast to the description of the Arran 
islanders by Pennant above quoted, may be 
taken his description of the songs, the gaiety, 
the pleasant lore, and the colour generally by 
which life in the Highlands had been every- 
where characterised. Describing the Island of 
Skye in the same year he says : " They sing in 
the same manner when they are cutting down 
the corn, when thirty or forty join in chorus, 
keeping time to the sound of a bagpipe, as the 
Grecian lasses were wont to do to that of a 
lyre during the vintage in the days of Homer. 
The subject of the songs at the Luaghadh, the 
Quern, and on this occasion, are sometimes 
love, sometimes panegyric, and often a re- 
hearsal of the deeds of the ancient heroes." 
All these things, surely a splendid inheritance 
and worth preserving, surely a fine contrast to 
the silly songs of the music-halls of Glasgow 
and London, have gone, swept away in the 
desire to modernise and get more money out 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 63 

of life instead of gaiety, refinement, good 
feeling, character. 

I have heard it stated that in Sannox the 
people were evicted because there had been 
so much intermarrying that there were great 
numbers of deaf and dumb persons in the vil- 
lages ! I have not, however, found any justi- 
fication for this statement. There was in Arran 
generally, as there is in all country districts, a 
certain amount of intermarrying, but it does 
not appear to have been commoner than in any 
other part of Scotland, nor than in English 
rural districts, and it was certainly less 
common than in Norway and many other 
parts of the Continent. My judgment is 
based upon a list of the surnames then in 
Sannox, many of which were those of com- 
paratively new-comers, and not of Arran 
origin. In view of the nearness of the island 
to Kintyre, Bute, the mainland of Argyll, 
and to Renfrewshire and Ayrshire, I doubt 
much whether the intermarrying has at any 
time been great enough to affect the health and 
physique of the people in the slightest degree. 

The fact is, that the people stood in the 



64 ARRAN 

way of huge farms, of the deer, the sheep, 
and of absolute ownership ; as Mr. Somer- 
ville of Lochgilphead, quoted by MacKenzie,* 
said of that time : " The watchword of all is 
exterminate, exterminate the native race. 
Through this monomania of landlords the 
cottar population is all but extinct, and the 
substantial yeomen is undergoing the same 
process of dissolution." To give an example, 
** On the west side of Loch Awe," MacKenzie 
says, '* once forty-five families were main- 
tained ; the place is now rented by a single 
sheep farmer." 

Dr. Donald MacLeod, writing in 1863, said, 
" Is not a man better than sheep ? They who 
would have shed their blood like water for 
Queen and country are in other lands, High- 
land still, but expatriated for ever." 

If you want men to-day, 

Pipe you never so loudly, 
No lads come away 

With their cheeks glowing proudly ; 
You may call on the deer, 

On the grouse and grey wether, 
But not on the lads 

With the bonnet and feather : 

* History of the Highland Clearances. 



IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 65 

When you called to the fight 

Then they ever were ready, 
They, light-hearted and gay. 

They, the strong and the steady ! 



ARRAN AND THE FORTY-FIVE 

The Hamiltons are said by Mr. Andrew 
Lang not to have been on the side of the 
Stuarts at the time of the famous rising, 
but Mr. James MacBride, writer (of Glas- 
gow), states that his great-grandfather, James 
MacGregor, was sent by the duke with a 
letter to Prince Charles. When MacGregor, 
whose papers seem to confirm this story, 
reached the prince, he was at Culloden, and 
seeing that the letter could now only bring 
certain trouble to his chief, he took it back 
to the duke, who was pleased with his 
shrewdness. Years after, when MacGregor 
was about to be ejected from his farm at 
Clachan, by the side of the old graveyard 
of Shisken, he wrote a letter to the duke, 
which is still, I understand, preserved, in 
which he appealed against the factor's action 
in ejecting him, and reminded him in guarded 
5 



66 ARRAN 

language of the service he had rendered years 
before. MacGregor, a fiery and outspoken 
old Highlander, and his brother, came from 
Bracklin, and were at one time high in the 
duke's favour. 

Mr. MacBrlde, who tells the story, is the 
grand old man of Arran, being over ninety 
years of age. He is as handsome, as rosy 
cheeked, and as alert as a man of sixty, and 
still goes down to his business every morn- 
ing at nine o'clock and discusses his clients' 
causes, or, in unoccupied moments, will crack 
over old Arran memories with much en- 
thusiasm. 

The writer of the New Statistical Account 
of Kilmory states that the Hon. Charles 
Boyle, son of Lord Kilmarnock, fled, like his 
ancestors had done in Brace's time, to Arran, 
and lay concealed in the farm of Auchalef- 
fan till he found a chance of getting across 
to France. This, says the writer, was the 
Mr. Boyle who received Dr. Johnson at 
Slanes Castle many years later. 



PART IV 
THE BRANDANI 



CHAPTER VIII 

OLD FAMILIES IN ARRAN 

THE ARRAN AND BUTE BARONS 

On the mainland of Scotland, highland and 
lowland, the old historic names have gradually 
been rooted out, just as in England the old 
" Statesmen " of Westmorland and Cumber- 
land have been bought or sold out by the few 
great landholders. The whole tendency has 
been for the possession of the land to become 
concentrated in the hands of a very few. The 
Johnstones no longer hold Annandale as 
"kindly tenants" or small lairds ; the Gallo- 
way clans are mixed up with the rest of the 
community ; the lairds of Kintyre might be 
numbered on your fingers ; and the MacVicars, 
Munros, MacNicols, MacKellars, Maclntur- 
ners, and others have long disappeared from 

Loch Fyne. The very names have in many 

69 



70 ARRAN 

cases vanished, and all the old traditions of 
the countryside which they inherited from 
their fathers have gone with them. 

In Arran and in Bute things were some- 
what different, and as reward for service 
rendered to the Bruces and the Stewarts the 
old Brandani were supported in their posses- 
sions by the kings to which the two islands 
belonged from time to time. At the date of 
the Bute charter of 1506 the Butemen are 
shown to have been possessed of lands, and 
there is every reason to believe that the 
people of Arran, with whom they had been 
closely associated in all their exploits, held, 
in an identical manner, the lands which they 
had probably first received from the Somer- 
ledian chiefs, the design of Robert Bruce to 
keep the islands as a recruiting ground for 
the Scottish army being clearly shown in his 
will. 

So it has happened that amongst the 
people of Arran and Bute are still represented 
the old Barons, who date from the days of 
Bruce and Robert 11., and in many cases from 
the time of Somerled. The old Gaelic pro- 



OLD FAMILIES IN ARRAN 71 

verb says : " Clann Bhridean agus clann 
Ennain, na cloinne a's sine ann an Arrinn," 
and amongst the old names are also Mac- 
Louie (MacLoy or Fullarton), MacCook (in 
Gaelic, MacCug), MacDavid or Davidson, 
MacGilker, MacAllister, Stewart, Hunter, 
Kelso, Kerr, Kennedy, MacMhurrich or 
MacVurich (which has been whittled down 
to Murchie and Currie), MacMaster, Brown 
(MacBraon or MacBrayne), MacNicol, 
Love, Crawford, Hamilton, MacNish, while 
MacMillan, MacKillop, MacKenzie, Shaw, 
Thomson, Robertson, Bannatyne, and Mac- 
Kelvie are later but yet old names in the 
island. Nearly all these families are still 
represented in Arran, though their names 
date back longer than those of half the 
members of the House of Lords. 

Mr. Patrick Murray, late factor of the Arran 
estates, writing in 1890, says: "One thing I 
have had brought home to me in looking back 
over these old records is the frequency with 
which I recognise names in the rental of to- 
day in that of one hundred years ago. In 
some cases the same names — both surname 



72 ARRAN 

and Christian — appear in the very same farms 
as they did last century. Any of these Arran 
tenants I refer to would have no difficulty in 
compiling their pedigree for the Herald's Col- 
lege whenever that should be wanted." 

In Arran and Bute the relations between 
chief and people had in old times been excep- 
tionally close, as will be seen by the account 
of the Battle of the Stones in another chapter. 
There had long been a middle class of gentry 
in both islands. A visitor to the island in 
1628 says : " Neither is there any isle like to 
it for brave gentry, good archers, and hill- 
hovering hunters." These were, it seems 
from the surnames, originally descendants of 
Somerled, like the MacBrides, MacKirdys, 
MacAllisters, and Bannatynes, and of officers 
and others attached to the household of 
Somerled, like the MacKinnons, MacVurichs, 
and probably the MacCugs, Hunters, and 
also the MacGilchattans and MacGildowies, 
who seem to have originated in Kintyre. 

According to the tradition, at the time of 
Bruce, they were confirmed in their posses- 
sions, and got new grants, while later the 



OLD FAMILIES IN ARRAN 73 

Stewarts and others joined their ranks ; their 
duty was to provide a force of twenty-four 
men to form the king's bodyguard. They 
certainly were transferred with all their 
rights on the passing of the island of Arran 
to the Lord Hamilton, who had married 
the king's sister, Jane. In the sixteenth cen- 
tury, as is shown by historical documents, 
they seem to have held by military service 
of the Hamiltons. The old tradition is that 
the holders of the charters, which the older 
generation of Arran men affirm were identical 
with those granted to MacLouie, got into 
debt owing to the small annual tribute to the 
superior not having been claimed for many 
years, and that the Hamilton family impounded 
the charters. Be that as it may, it is certain 
that the descendants of these men were called 
" Baron " within the recollections of persons 
now living, and this title was used only by 
military tenants of the Crown. The Rev. 
Neil MacBride of Lamlash, a nephew of the 
Rev. Alexander MacBride, author of the 
New Statistical Account of Kilmory Parish, 
wrote in 1890: " Bruce's Arran friends who 



74 ARRAN 

received gifts of land in the island bore the 
names you have given, as I have often heard, 
and a descendant of one of them, M'Kinnon, 
who died at Brodick in my own day, was 
better known as ' The Baron ' than by his 
own name." 

Local tradition is, and has always been, very 
strong on the point. MacArthur says, writing 
in 1870 : "A few centuries ago the lands of 
the island were divided amongst several petty 
chiefs or barons, and standing stones were raised 
as landmarks to define the boundaries of their 
possessions, and prevent the encroachment of 
neighbouring chiefs . . . and among the dells 
and over the heathery moors these rude monu- 
ments of the island chiefs may still be seen, 
mutely eloquent of the . . . old times. By the 
roadside between Brodick and Lamlash there 
stand three massive blocks of red sandstone, 
which are said to mark the spot where the lands 
of three of the old proprietors of Arran met." 
Pennant, who during his stay in the island in 
1 77 1 was shown about by the parish minister, 
Mr. Lindsay, and visited Fullarton of Kilmich- 
ael, and no doubt got his information largely 



OLD FAMILIES IN ARRAN 75 

from him, says : " Arran was the property of the 
Crown. Robert Bruce returned thither during 
his distresses, and met with protection from his 
faithful vassals. Numbers of them followed his 
fortunes ; and after the battle of Bannockburn 
he rewarded several, such as the MacCooks, 
MacKinnons, MacBrides, and MacLouies or 
Fullartons with different charters of lands in 
their native country." Other writers add 
the names of the Stewarts and Hunters to 
this list. 

Pennant goes on to say : " About the year 
1334 the island seems to have formed part of 
the estate of Robert Stewart, Great Steward of 
Scotland, afterwards Robert 11. At that time " 
(the natives) "lookup arms tosupport the cause 
of their master, who afterwards, in reward, not 
only granted at their request an immunity from 
their annual tribute of corn, but added several 
new privileges, and a donation to all the inhabi- 
tants that were present." 



CHAPTER IX 

THE BRANDANES 
OR, MEN OF ARRAN AND BUTE 

I HAVE in the following pages adopted the old 

name of the islanders, as it is quite impossible 

in many cases to distinguish between deeds 

done by the Arran or Butemen singly and 

those done collectively. 

Arnold Blair, chaplain to Wallace, from 

whose MS. Blind Harry got his material, 

writing shortly after the death of Wallace, 

in 1305, says: "In this unfortunate battle 

(Falkirk) were slain, on the Scottish side, 

John Stewart of Bute, with his Brandans ; 

for so they name them that are taken up 

to serve in the wars forth of the Stewart's 

lands." Both the islands had, it will be 

remembered, been acquired by the Stewarts 

a century earlier by the marriage with Jane, 

76 



THE BRANDANES 77 

granddaughter of Angus MacSomhairle. 
Hector Boece, writing in 1527, says: 
" Brandani — ita enim ea aetata incolse Arain 
et Boitae insularum vulgo vocabantur." 
" The term," says Fullarton, " has been under- 
stood as denoting the miHtary tenants holding 
of the Great Steward " ; and this explanation 
seems to fit in best with all the facts, especi- 
ally with the evidences of their independent 
action on many occasions, — an independence 
worthy of the old Gall Gael of whom they 
were the descendants. D. Macpherson says : 
"The people of Bute, and I believe also 
of Arran, perhaps so called in honour of 
St. Brendan." St. Brendan, who died in a.d. 
577, was a companion of St. Colum or Col- 
umba. Camden states that the saint lived 
and laboured in Bute ; but there seems to 
be no direct evidence of this. 

The Rev. Neil MacBride of Lamlash 
again suggests that the word Brandani 
means the bold water or spray men ; and, 
of course, it is quite possible that it may 
mean simply the men of the sea of Bran- 
dan. The Book of Arran goes, I think, far 



78 ARRAN 

afield when it follows Captain White, who 
assumes that the name Kilbrannan refers to 
a kil or cell of St. Brendan of Clonfert, and 
tries to find in a small church on the coast of 
Kintyre the actual cell of this saint. Mr. 
Balfour, is, I think, equally mistaken in 
believing that in the site at Kilpatrick they 
have discovered the real St. Brendan's church. 
The site, he says, is "on the northern shoulder 
of Leac Bhreac." The name of the hill that 
guards it isTorr an Daimh, which he translates 
"the hill of the church." This is, he says, 
" the only known memorial save the record 
furnished by the cashel itself, that this was 
one of the first outposts of Christianity in 
Scotland." This site, first discovered by the 
Arran Society, may, of course, be ecclesi- 
astical, but it does not follow that it was 
founded by Brendan. 

Mr. Balfour asks where, failing this, is the 
church which gives its name to Kilbrandon 
Sound ? 

St. Brendan does not seem to have figured 
largely in the West Highlands. There is a 
small parish church in Argyll called Kil- 



THE BRANDANES 79 

brandon, and my suggestion is that the name 
of the Sound contains no reference to a 
church ; that the word is not Kil but " Kyle," 
a narrow sea, passage, or strait of water, 
which is familiar in the " Kyles " of Bute, the 
"Kyle" of Lochalsh, " Kulri " in Skye. I 
suggest that this name was given long before 
Brendan's time, and is taken from the name 
Bran or Branan MacLir, a brother of Man- 
nanan, who beyond doubt gave his name 
to the neighbour isle of Man. They were 
sons of Ler the sea-god, made famous by 
Shakespeare, and in the Keltic story, The 
Fate of the Childj^en of Lir. The old name 
of the islanders, assuming that it contains the 
same root, the Brandani or Brannani, would 
be thus the followers of the war-god, a name 
that would fit their character when history 
first introduces us to them. By that time Bran 
had undergone the change which so many of 
his brother gods underwent when the Chris- 
tian monks had the shrewdness to appropriate 
them for their own Church ; he was by them 
credited with having introduced Christianity 
into Britain, and became Bran the Blessed ! 



8o ARRAN 

The fact that the name of the saint, though 
common in Ireland, does not occur amongst 
the men either of Arran or Kintyre, who are 
all men of the Sound of Kilbrandon, seems to 
support my contention, or at any rate to 
suggest that the saint's and their name have 
no connection with each other, save that they 
are probably borrowed from the same source. 

It is to be regretted that the Rev. J. K. 
Hewison in his Bute in the Olden Time, 
unlike any other writer on the subject, 
has written as though all the deeds of the 
Brandani had been performed by the Bute 
men alone, which is as unreasonable as it 
would be to suppose that Wallace's remark 
given by Blind Harry — "Good westland men 
of Arran and Rauchle, if they be warned they 
will all come to me," did not include in 
Wallace's mind the men of Bute itself, who 
with their Arran kinsmen and the men of 
Fife had fought so splendidly at Falkirk. 



CHAPTER X 

THE LANGUAGE OF ARRAN 

The original speech of Arran was, of course, 
Gaelic, which was the common language of 
conversation amongst the natives till some 
thirty or forty years ago. That it is now 
dying out, though still, of course, understood 
and spoken, is greatly to be regretted, nay, 
it is sad and shameful. Of course, until the 
action of the Highland and Scottish Societies 
of Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, and the 
Colonies nothing was done for its encourage- 
ment, but it has, after a long agitation, now 
been placed by the Education Department 
on the same footing as French, or Welsh, or 
any other language. It remains for the High- 
land people themselves to insist upon it being 
properly taught to their children in the ele- 
mentary schools. 



82 ARRAN 

The excuse for neglecting it — the most 
precious gift the Highlander has received 
from his cultured ancestors of early Christian 
times — was that it interfered with the teach- 
ing of subjects of commercial value. This 
supposition has been utterly disproved by 
many years of actual experience of Welsh 
teaching, in which it has been shown, as 
admitted by inspectors, that, so far from the 
bi-lingual children being behind the others, 
they are invariably more intelligent, more alert, 
more advanced generally. And, of course, 
it is easy to see that it must be so, for the 
English language is far less opulent, less 
complex than the Keltic tongues, which are 
more capable, therefore, of expressing fine 
shades of thought and meaning. 

The vocabulary of the English peasant 
has been estimated to contain about 400 to 
600 words. On the other hand a German 
philologist. Dr. Finck, some years ago made 
a study of the language of the Aran island- 
ers on the spot. Dr. Finck took down no 
less than 4000 words which he found occurring 
in the daily speech of the inhabitants of that 



THE LANGUAGE OF ARRAN 8^ 

remote Irish island. Dr. Douglas Hyde, 
commenting on these investigations, wrote at 
the time : "Is the Board so ignorant of its 
own business that it does not know that 
thought is conditioned by language, and that 
they act and react upon one another so intim- 
ately that a boy with a vocabulary of 4000 
words will have many times more numerous 
and more subtle ideas at his command than 
a boy with only 500 ? " 

It would be a sad disaster if the Gaelic 
tongue were allowed to die out in Arran, but 
this will certainly happen if the people of 
the island, especially the younger men and 
women, do not see that it is taught to their 
children in the schools and used by them- 
selves at home and abroad on every possible 
occasion. 

The people of Argyll, of Inverness-shire, 
of Ross, and other Highland counties, have 
long been working in the same direction, but, 
so far as I am aware, nothing has as yet been 
done in Arran. In Argyllshire, close by, 
great things are being accomplished for its 
advancement by the London Argyllshire 



84 ARRAN 

Association and other societies, and the Duke 
of Argyll, the late MacLaine of Lochbuie, 
Mrs. Burnley -Campbell of Ormidale, and 
many others, have given their hearty sym- 
pathy and help in this duty, so important 
intellectually and so patriotic. There is no 
landmark of our fathers, no cairn, or fort, or 
tower, or church, deep though its interest 
may be, which is as important, none which 
has so completely caught the mould of their 
thoughts, their hopes, their aspirations, and 
which can, therefore, be so sacred to their 
sons and daughters as the language in which 
they expressed their hearts. 

THE AUTHOR OF THE FIRST GAELIC 
DICTIONARY I WILLIAM SHAW 

Shaw, the compiler of the first dictionary 
of the Gaelic language, was born at Clachaig, 
in Kilmory parish, in 1749. He was sent 
to school at Ayr, and was a graduate of 
Glaso-ow. He went as tutor to London and 
there met Dr. Johnson and other literary 
lights. When he told Johnson of his 



THE LANGUAGE OF ARRAN 85 

great scheme for making a collection of 
Gaelic words, the old doctor heartily ap- 
proved and actually drew up part of the 
"Proposals" or prospectus. The Highland 
people, however, did not respond, and Shaw 
raised from ^200 to ;^300 from his own 
property and started for the Highlands. 
The parting words of Johnson were whole- 
hearted, appreciative, and encouraging. 
"Sir," he said, "if you give the world a 
vocabulary of that language, while the island 
of Great Britain stands in the Atlantic Ocean 
your name will be mentioned," 

This was in 1778; in the year following 
Shaw entered the ministry. He, however, 
had the dictionary at heart, and travelled 
three thousand miles in Scotland and Ireland 
in his efforts to make it complete. In 1780 
his great work actually appeared in two 
volumes. Owing to the unwillingness of 
the Scottish peasants a considerable portion 
of the words were collected in Ireland, where 
the compiler was more generously received, 
so that both Scots and Irish may remember 
his name with gratitude. He also published 



86 ARRAN 

his valuable Memoirs of the Life and Writ- 
ings of Dr. Samuel Johnson, and later, 
among other things, Suggestions respecting a 
Plan of National Education, and An Inquiry 
into the Authenticity of the Poems ascribed 
to Ossian. Of the reply to the critics of this 
work Dr. Johnson wrote a part. Shaw died 
at Chelvey, Somerset, in 183 1. 



DANIEL MACMILLAN 

Arran does not boast many literary men 
amongst her sons, but she does boast one of 
the most famous of publishers in Daniel 
MacMillan, founder of the great firm of 
MacMillan of London, who was born at 
High Corrie in 18 13. He was the son of 
Duncan MacMillan and his wife Katherine 
Crawford, also an Arran woman. His grand- 
father, Malcolm MacMillan, was Tacksman of 
the Cock Farm, and was allied, we are told, to 
the MacMillans of Sanquhar and Arndarroch, 
Kirkcudbrightshire, though the names, like 
Malcolm, Duncan, Neil, Donald, and Daniel 
(which in the Highlands is generally a bad 



THE LANGUAGE OF ARRAN 87 

attempt to Anglicisethe name Donald),suggest 
the Argyllshire MacMillans. The family 
were in Corrie and in North and Mid Sannox 
in 1776. They intermarried with the Kelsos, 
Crawfords, MacKenzies, and others in 
Sannox, once a populous district. 



I.'i ■'■■■•■ '.■■',>■■' 






'''W&:^"t-:^'i&i^m 



PART V 

OUR EAKLY ANCESTORS IN 
ARRAN 



CHAPTER XI 

ARRAN'S WEALTH OF PREHISTORIC 
REMAINS 

Arran is also peculiarly rich in prehistoric 
remains, in ancient forts, stone circles, cham- 
bered cairns, and the standing stones which 
give so rare and weird a character to the 
Highland landscape. Many more, it is to be 
regretted, have been destroyed. Where were 
many standing stones, now there is often left 
but one, and the chambered graves have been 
all more or less dismantled by rude hands. 

Machrie Moor, over against Shisken, which 
is believed to have been once a densely 
populated district, is the chief site of these 
profoundly interesting monuments. 

Most, if not all, of the stone circles, such as 
those we see in Arran, at Machrie, and other 
places, and many of the single standing stones. 



92 ARRAN 

are memorials of chieftains who have fallen 
in the fight. This discovery was first made 
by Mr, C. E. Dalrymple, from actual ex- 
cavations below the monuments in Aberdeen- 
shire and Kincardine, and the facts were 
published by Stuart. Dr. James Bryce, of 
Glasgow, followed these investigations up 
by excavations on Machrie Moor, and found 
corroboration of Mr. Dalrymple's statements. 
As long ago as 1527 Boece says: "The 
graves and sepulchres of our noblemen had 
commonlie so many obelisks and speirs 
pitched about them, as the deceased had 
killed enemies before time in the field." 

Similar stones were, as I have already 
stated, set up to mark the marches of the 
estates of the various chiefs. The right of 
MacMillan to the estate of Knap in Argyll- 
shire is cut in Gaelic upon the surface of a rock. 
In the case of the Cat Stone near Edinburgh, 
about which Sir James Young Simpson wrote, 
the name, from the Gaelic Cat or Cath, is a 
sufficient explanation of its origin. A similar 
*' Cat," or Battle-Stone, marks the spot where 
Somerled is said to have fallen near Houston 



WEALTH OF PREHISTORIC REMAINS 93 

in Renfrewshire, and the Tanist and King's 
Stones commemorate great events or customs. 
But nowhere else in the kingdom can there 
be found, in the small space of twenty-four 
miles by seven, such a wealth of prehistoric 
remains as in Arran. Blackwaterfoot once 
boasted the largest known prehistoric burial 
mound, and the Arran skulls discovered by 
the late Dr. James Bryce were the first in- 
disputable examples of the Stone Age type 
which had been found. Again, the ancient 
graves, formed of square stone slabs set on 
end and divided into small chambers and 
roofed in by heavy stone slabs, such as were 
found and may be seen at Whiting Bay, 
at Dippen, Blairmore, at Kilmorie Water- 
foot, in two places ; at Slidderie, Monamor, 
Sannox, Shisken, Tormore, Moinechoill, 
Dunan Beg, and Dunan More, Torlin, 
and Clachaig, are of great interest. Dr. 
Thomas H. Bryce says, in one of his lectures 
on " Prehistoric Man and his Monuments in 
the Island of Arran " : " Only at two localities 
in Argyllshire have structures like these been 
described in Scotland, and their place is 



94 ARRAN 

determined by the study of the Arran 
structures." Graves of this type ("mega- 
Hthic") are called "chambered cairns," and 
they were intended for many interments. 
Some of the remains found in them show 
signs of cremation, others of ordinary burial 
in a sitting posture. 

Besides these cairns there has been found 
in Arran another type called the "short cist." 
This is a single compartment, carefully formed 
of stone slabs, and often surrounded by one 
of the stone circles so picturesque and so im- 
pressive, while sometimes a great cairn or 
mound is erected over it. The short cist was 
intended for the burial of only a single body 
in the sitting posture. About fourteen of 
these cists have been discovered in Arran at 
South Feorline, Blackwaterfoot, Kilpatrick 
(two), Clachaig, Cnocan a' Choilich, Glenkill, 
Benlester Burn, Lamlash, Merkland Point, 
North Sannox, Whitefarland, Auchancar, 
Machrie Waterfoot, Dippen, Auchancairn. 
Details of the excellent work done in excavat- 
ingr these monuments is criven in The Book 
of Arran, There will be found also a list of 



WEALTH OF PREHISTORIC REMAINS 95 

other ancient remains whose character is not 
now clear, owing largely to vandalism prac- 
tised upon them at various times. For it is 
to be greatly regretted that the sacred char- 
acter of these monuments has been sadly 
overlooked or disregarded. It is to be hoped, 
however, that the protest made by Mr. Balfour 
in the book referred to will have effect. 

Had it not been for the discovery of these 
monuments, and the human remains and 
ancient pottery they contained, we would now 
know little about our early ancestors. They, 
taken together with the discovery of similar 
pottery and similar remains by English arch- 
aeologists like Beddoe and Greenwell, and the 
admirable work of Schmidt, Topinard, Broca, 
and others on the Continent, with spade 
and pen, linked up the archaeological chain. 
For in the chambered cairns of Arran and 
long barrows of England, and the dolmens 
of France and Spain, they found a type of 
skull and of pottery which were practically 
identical with the remains in our chambered 
cairns. In the single or short cist, and the 
round barrows of England, they found a quite 



96 ARRAN 

different type of skull and of pottery, and also 
relics showing that the men of these burials 
belonged to the Bronze Age at a date previous 
to the Christian era, while the chambered 
cairn and long barrow men proved to be of 
a still earlier period. They also saw that 
these earlier wanderers came from the south, 
and spread from the Mediterranean lands 
over a considerable part of Europe, includ- 
ing England, the west of Scotland, and the 
Hebrides ; that they were dark in type, and 
short in stature. 



THE ETHNOLOGY OF ARRAN 

Could any romance be greater than this 
unravelling of the tangled skein of history ? 
But it is not quite all. Ethnology is hardly 
yet a science, though it is now conducted 
on scientific lines and is making rapid pro- 
gress. Since ethnologists turned to the study 
of craniology, or the shapes of skulls, they 
found rock to build upon instead of the sand 
on which they had relied when they set down 
races and docketed them according to the 



WEALTH OF PREHISTORIC REMAINS 97 

language they spoke. If I may quote my 
own words of ten years since : " The origin 
and distribution of the races of Europe was 
thought to have been settled by the Aryan 
wave theory, which made out that the Keltic 
people, including the Irish, Welsh, Scots, 
Bretons, Picts, and British came over to 
Europe from Asia in waves or droves, the 
last comers pushing the first comers into the 
mountainous districts. 

" This theory had been almost universally 
accepted till it fell under the lancet of the 
anthropologist, when it was found to present 
glaring defects, and difficulties which appeared 
to many scholars to be insurmountable, and 
so they have, through the labours of Schmidt, 
Greenwell, Broca, Beddoe, Taylor, Huxley, 
Ripley, and others, abandoned the philological 
method for the anthropological one. 

" Anthropology proves that language is not 
by any means a sure test of race. On the 
other hand, it is found that in the matter 
of shape of skull, height, and colour, nature 
is persistent, and that mixed races show a 
tendency to atavism — to throw back to re- 
7 



gS ARRAN 

mote ancestors — ^just as they also blend and 
make new types. It shows that in the pure 
race there is one type and not two, that in 
ancient interments the skulls are generally 
either all broad or all long. And that, more- 
over, where a small number of men settled 
amongst a larger community, the tendency 
was for the amalgamated race to revert to 
the original type of the larger community in 
shape of skull, size of body, and complexion. 

"For example, the Anglo-Saxon played a 
great part in the history of England ; yet it has 
been pointed out years ago that men of the 
true German type, with very light hair and 
very pale blue eyes, are almost unknown in 
England to-day."* And Dr.Thomas H. Bryce 
has recently pointed out that the wave of 
broad-headed people hardly touched the west, 
and has left very little trace of its presence. 
** So that when we find many shapes of skull 
and many complexions, etc., amongst a people, 
we know that there is great mixture of race."* 

The people of Arran are in the main 
strikingly similar in shape of skull to the 

* The Origin of the Lowlanders, 1900. 



WEALTH OF PREHISTORIC REMAINS 99 

types found in the ancient chambered 
cairns of the island. Looking upon it 
from above, the skull is a very long oval, 
narrowing at both ends, at the forehead 
and cerebullum, and widening out consider- 
ably above the ears, the back part or 
cerebullum being very prominent. Dr. 
Bryce, in The Book of Arran, gives photo- 
graphs of skulls of this type. So far as I 
remember, they differ from those found by 
Sir Daniel Wilson in Lothian and in Fife, 
not in their length, but in tapering much 
more towards the back and front, save in 
one instance. The East Lothian and Fife- 
shire specimens are almost square at the 
four corners, but the Arran type is emphatic- 
ally not so ; it is distinctly oval, and of 
well-defined and symmetrical proportions. 
The Arran man, as Paterson pointed out in 
183 1, is generally dark, and despite the claims 
of those who would discover evidences of 
Norse blood in Arran, it is very difficult to 
find there men of Norse type. We find, 
of course, a not inconsiderable number of 
men of the tall, white-skinned, red-cheeked, 



loo ARRAN 

red-haired Scottish type, which is common 
all over Scotland, but especially, it seems to 
me, in the Perthshire district. We find 
the tall, yellow-fair, long-headed Kymric, 
or miscalled " Keltic " type, but the real 
blonde of Norway, Sweden, and Germany 
is most rare, if not quite unknown. The 
Arran people are clearly representative of 
the long-headed, dark man of the cham- 
bered cairns, now called " Mediterranean." 
Sir Daniel Wilson said a good many years 
ago : " As to the early Scandinavian type, I 
was led to conceive, contrary to the conclusion 
of continental investigators — in relation to 
Northern Europe — that the earliest Scottish, 
and indeed British, race differed entirely 
from that of Scandinavia, as defined by 
Professor Wilson and others, being char- 
acterised by markedly elongated and narrow 
cranium, tapering equally towards the fore- 
head and occiput. ..." 

The difference between the very fine 
skulls found in the MacArthur Cave at Oban 
and the Arran skulls referred to is slight, the 
Arran examples being, if anything, a little less 



WEALTH OF PREHISTORIC REMAINS loi 

heavy, that is, finer, and more varied in out- 
line. Both examples are distinctly longer 
than the Norse skull of to-day, which is 
round, mesaticephalic, or even brachycephalic, 
seldom dolichocephalic. It also never shows 
the tremendous development of the occiput 
so notable in Scotland. The Norse are to- 
day a very mixed people, and, so far as my 
observation goes, Lapp characteristics ap- 
pear in some members of most Norwegian 
families. We find also very pure types in 
the same families of the traditional and hand- 
some Norseman, fair, and aquiline of nose. 
Even this type is, I believe, nothing like so 
long-skulled as the Arran heads of long ago, 
or as the ordinary Scotsman, who is regarded 
as possessing the longest head in Europe. 
So I have been told by those who have 
exceptional opportunities of making com- 
parisons with foreign races. 

It has been suggested that the red hair 
arises from the contact of a dark and a fair 
race ; but there seems to be something more 
in it than that, something older, and sugges- 
tive of a separate race which started from 



102 ARRAN 

the beginning on different lines. The de- 
scription of the "ruddy hair and large 
limbs " of the Caledonian, written by Tacitus 
about the year 97 a.d., would do admirably 
for the big men we see to-day so often in the 
market-place at Perth, or less frequently 
in the Arran lanes, and, though contact 
might bring us some specimens of a type, 
Tacitus' reference was clearly to a whole race 
who were more or less of that description. 



CHAPTER XII 

ANCIENT FORTS AND CAMPS 

Nothing impresses one so much with the 
fact of the former importance of Arran, owing 
to the very central position it occupied 
between the various tribes who had settled 
in prehistoric times on the mainland or on the 
islands around, than the green mounds which 
mark the remains of its wonderful chain of 
camps, forts, or dunes. In these the natives 
kept watch over the dividing seas for white 
sailed boat or narrow canoe or coracle, and 
when they saw the invading force it was to 
such great camps as that of Drumadoon or 
Glen Eas (Ashdale), or Tor Caisteal they 
brought their women and their other wealth. 
They belong to the greater fortresses of the 
coast, but besides these, everywhere, in 
every glen, there were small forts from 



104 ARRAN 

behind whose walls no doubt arrows could be 
shot in safety at the enemy who dared to 
enter these fastnesses. From them in every 
case, I know, a view is obtained of the entire 
glen. A good example is that in Glen Cloy, 
in which Bruce is said to have kept watch 
for the soldiers of Edward. From it one 
can see the whole of the glen. At the point 
at which Glen Easbuig and Glen an't Suidhe 
meet, to the north of the Shisken road, is the 
site of another fort which must have com- 
manded a splendid view of the Vale of Shisken. 

DRUMADOON 

Of the greater forts, that of Drumadoon 
is by far the most interesting. Splendidly 
situated on the sea cliffs some 200 ft. above 
the beach, its features can still be made out. 
Its wall, 10 ft. in thickness, protected a space 
of some acres in extent. Its commanding 
position and its excellent defences rendered 
it impregnable, and a safe sheltering place for 
the whole district of Waterfoot, which must 
have been, from its flatness, so exposed to the 
assaults of enemies from over seas. 



'^m 



i-.t'?':»' 









ANCIENT FORTS AND CAMPS 105 

TOR CAISTEAL 

The next link in the chain of coast de- 
fences is Tor Caisteal, near Sliddery, a few 
miles farther south. This fort is circular, and 
160 ft. in circumference, its walls were some 
6 ft. thick, and the approach to its entrance 
was protected by a smaller fort or outwork. 
The hill on which the castle was built is said 
to be artificial. The men who constructed 
it showed skill and intelligence, which prove 
them to have been far above the condition of 
mere savages. 

GLEN ASHDALE 

The fort or camp of Glen Ashdale occupied 
a fine position overlooking the great glen. 
The walls showed a thickness of 25 ft, and 
were formed of huge sandstone and granite 
blocks skilfully put together, and enclosing a 
space of 290 ft. or thereabouts. The glen 
itself is in point of richness of foliage and the 
splendid colour of the sandstone cliffs exceed- 
ingly fine, and very different in character to 
the wild glens of the north. The waterfall 
is the highest in the island. 



io6 ARRAN 

king's cross 

At King's Cross, close to the monolith 
which, tradition says, commemorates the 
embarkation of Bruce and his followers for 
the Carrick coast, is the site of a small round 
fort, 15 ft. in diameter, behind which the 
natives could no doubt defend the landing- 
place. 

DUN FION 

Dun Fion, on the other side of Lamlash Bay, 
was one of the island's chief defences, like 
Tor Coille. It stands some 600 ft. above sea- 
level, on the hill above Clauchlands Point, 
and its wall of 5 ft. in thickness enclosed a 
space of 140 ft. The walls are said to have 
showed signs of vitrefaction, which, Sir George 
MacKenzie suggested, was caused by the 
beacon fires lit in these forts from time to 
time. The walls being composed of porphyry 
and sandstone would, it was suggested, be 
fused by a very moderate heat. As a look-out 
station, the position of Dun Fion is one of 
the best in the island. No hostile galley 
could approach from north or east without 



ANCIENT FORTS AND CAMPS 107 

being noticed, and when the help of others was 
needed the beacon from Dun Fion could 
be seen far and wide, at the small fort at 
King's Cross to the south, at the great one 
by Brodick and the small one of Springfield 
to the north. From these would leap up 
similar beacon fires to warn the good folk all 
round the island, and across at Carradale and 
Dalaruan in Kintyre and Bute, whence the 
kinsmen of the islanders, and the Somerledian 
chiefs, could send them aid. 

CRAIG NA CUIROCH 

Out of the great fort of Brodick rose the 
historic castle which has been, I believe, 
oftener attacked and burnt than any fortress 
of the West Highlands. From Brodick the 
next fort, going north, is theoldoneoverlooking 
Sannox Bay, and from there the coast needed 
no defence, being so precipitous, till we reach 
Loch Ranza, and find the remains of the great 
fort on Craigf na Cuiroch. The defence of a 
place like Ranza must have been compara- 
tively easy ; indeed, it must have been im- 
possible for an enemy to approach it, for the 



io8 ARRAN 

natives could assail the invaders from the 
surrounding hills. 

The real weakness of Arran lay in the 
Machrie Moor and Shisken districts, where 
landing was easy, and the wide plain was 
difficult to defend with a small force. The 
interior of the island would, however, afford 
a succession of death-traps to any troops, and 
it is pretty certain that they were seldom if 
ever assailed by the Norsemen or any other 
invaders, and certainly never held by them. 
The purely Gaelic character of the place- 
names of these parts, save in one or two great 
passes like that of Glen Hamad el, corroborate 
this conclusion. 

TORNANSCHIAN 

The list of forts, small and large, is by no 
means exhausted, showing clearly that the 
island was well populated and strongly held 
in old times. So strong were the defences 
that the old duns were probably in use for 
a thousand years, each succeeding generation 
finding them of service, just as the followers 
of Bruce found Tornanschian, the "stalwart 



ANCIENT FORTS AND CAMPS 109 

place " in Glen Cloy, useful at need. It was 
undoubtedly a strong place ; even as late as 
1772 Pennant says: "A mile beyond Kil- 
michael is Tornanschian Castle, surrounded 
by a great stone dike. Here Robert Bruce 
sheltered himself for some time." Pennant 
also saw " five earthen tumuli there in a row, 
with another outside of them. On that of 
another is a circle of stones, whose ends just 
appear above the earth. Probably," he adds, 
" the memorials of some battle." 

In the fifteenth century we hear of the 
Arran lairds strengthening the defences of the 
island on account of the raids of the Kintyre 
clans. It is probable that the old forts at 
Drumadoon and Torcastle, Glen Ashdale 
and Dun Fion, were then still in use. 



PART VI 

ARRAN— THE BATTLE-GROUND 
OF THE VIKING AGE 



CHAPTER XIII 

ARRAN IN THE VIKING AGE 

It is unfortunate that, owing to their stormy 
history and the loss of their records, but per- 
haps far more to the neglect and suppression 
of the native lanpfuaore in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries, the history of the 
Western Highlands and Islands, which has 
been of so stirring a character, has not and 
perhaps cannot be fully written. 

Assuredly no greater misfortunes could 
have happened to the Gaelic people of the 
West Highlands, advanced as they were 
in the arts, skilled in the manufacture of 
beautiful cloths, in the carving of fine monu- 
ments ; in the illuminating of the most 
beautiful missals and manuscripts the world 
can boast ; steeped as they were to the 
lips in the progressive spirit of the new 



114 ARRAN 

Christian religion, than to have been sub- 
merged by hordes of destructive ruffians ; 
and later to have been associated with a 
race of kings partly alien in blood and 
wholly alien in spirit. It was a calamity 
that, under the monstrous idea that it was 
a superior civilisation, those rulers should 
have forced upon them the feudal system, 
than which the mind of man never invented 
a more wicked and ingenious device for 
keeping his fellow-man in subjection. 

It is true that Scotland, only in parts and 
to a limited extent, fell in any real sense 
under the black hand of feudalism. In law, 
however, it did so, and the assumption that 
every breach of it was wrongful plunged 
Scotland, especially in the non-feudalised 
parts, into endless trouble and disaster. It 
was largely because of it that the High- 
lands and the Border districts, differing little 
from them, like the district of Galloway, 
were inevitably rebels against a system that 
was not theirs, which was infinitely inferior 
to their own system, and which was at no 
time understood by them. Their rebellion has 



ARRAN IN THE VIKING AGE 115 

lasted for all these centuries and exists to-day, 
as a glance at the recent history of the land 
question in the Highlands will show. 

Without remembering these facts it is 
quite impossible to understand the history of 
Arran, or of any other island of the Hebrides, 
or of the mainland Highland districts. It 
was the Norsemen of France, who came in 
Malcolm's and King David's train, who first 
brouorht us feudalism, and did something- to 
convert the freeman of the South of Scotland 
into a serf. The feudal lords were often 
mere adventurers from the Continent, like 
the Baliols and the Bruces and the Hastings 
who claimed the crown of Alexander, or Eng- 
lishmen whose real interest was in the south, 
and they showed clearly in the War of In- 
dependence that they would have preferred 
the splendid chains of Edward to independ- 
ence under a Scottish monarch. As the 
contemporary Englishman who wrote the 
Chronicle of Lanercost puts it : 

"... the greater part were for England, 
probably to save their lands there, for their 
hearts were with their property." 



ii6 ARRAN 

THE CHRISTIANS OF lONA 

The Norse incursions commenced, so far as 
we know, on the west coast of Scotland 
about the middle of the ninth century or 
possibly earlier, but the true Viking era was 
caused by the revolt of the independent 
chieftains of Norway against the attempt of 
Harald Harfaager (the fairhaired) to con- 
quer Norway and make himself a great 
kingdom. This he succeeded in accomplish- 
ing about the year 888. The best of the 
chiefs made for Iceland, which they colonised 
and cultivated, probably absorbing the small 
bands of Gaelic monks and settlers they 
found there. The rest took to the galleys 
and commenced their attacks upon the coasts 
of their own country of Norway, and probably 
of Sweden and Denmark, and made their ap- 
pearance in the islands of Orkney and Shet- 
land, which they conquered and colonised. 

It was then they made their first attempt 
upon the Dalriadic settlers in Argyll, and the 
South Isles, who had done so much to graft 
the hiofher civilisation of Ireland on to the 



ARRAN IN THE VIKING AGE 117 

life of their kindred in the West Highlands 
during the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth 
centuries. The headquarters of their king- 
dom was Dalaruan, which we now know as 
Campbeltown in Kintyre, and not far away, 
in lona, their countryman, St. Colum or 
Columba, had carried on his great work of 
Christianising the west. Many devoted men 
followed in his footsteps. 

With the coming of Harald the Fair- 
haired to punish his rebellious subjects for 
their harrying of his coasts, we get upon some- 
what firmer ground, though we must allow a 
little always for the bombastical style of the 
Saga writers. Harald swept down upon the 
Southern Hebrides about the year 888, and, 
after catching the rebels and utterly defeat- 
ing them in the great battle of Hafursfiord, 
he laid his heavy hand upon the islands in 
which they had taken refuge from his rule, 
and completely subdued them, from Shetland 
and the Orkneys to the South Isles, where 
he had many battles. His countrymen who 
had settled in the isles made their escape to 
Iceland, and there went with them a consider- 



m8 ARRAN 

able number of the islanders, whose Gaelic 
names, like Nial and Cormac are notable in 
the Icelandic Sagas. 

From the time of Harald until 1256 the 
Norse sovereignty over the Orkneys and 
Shetlands was unbroken, but their tenure of 
the South Isles was less secure. There, as 
Professor MacKinnon says, the native chiefs 
disputed supremacy with the Norse magnates. 
It is notable that the only Norse literature 
worthy of the name was produced by the 
mixed breed of Icelanders and Kelts. 



THE VALE OF SHISKEN AND MACHRIE 
MOOR 

In all these doings it is probable that Arran 
played a prominent part. It was directly 
opposite the capital of the Dalriadic king- 
dom, and the great and fertile vales of Shis- 
ken and Machrie lent themselves to the 
cultivation of the arts of peace which were 
common amongst the Dalriadic people. 
There is no doubt that at one time the great 
plain was a populous and busy place, where 



ARRAN IN THE VIKING AGE 119 

hammers rang out on the evening stillness, 
and spinners and spinsters wrought fine 
cloths, and masons carved fair crosses and 
stones with the rich and lovely interlaced 
patterns which belonged to our forefathers, 
and are part of the neglected inheritance 
they left us. In this great plain we still 
find in unequalled abundance the monuments 
and the burial-places of Pict and Scot and 
Norseman, and of the men of the remoter 
Stone and Bronze Ages, from whom we are 
also unquestionably descended. There was 
no place in Scotland which, until half a 
century ago, was so rich in these monuments 
as Machrie Moor. 

Undoubtedly, then, Arran was the battle- 
ground during the Norse period, when its 
exposed position, and the considerable civilisa- 
tion it had attained owing to this close contact 
with the Dalriadic kingdom for some five 
hundred years, made it a rich prey for the 
hungry subjects of Harald. It is, however, a 
mistake to assume, as has been done, that be- 
cause the Norsemen came here they settled 
and so left their blood behind them. It was 



I20 ARRAN 

specially agreed at the time of the cession of 
the island by Magnus in 1265 that such 
subjects of Norway as wished to leave the 
Hebrides should have liberty to do so, with 
all their effects. And at other periods the 
Norsemen probably left, owing to the pressure 
of the Gaels of Somerled. It has been 
stated that the Norse type of face and skull 
is common in the island. To me it seems 
to be distinctly rare. The familiar Scottish 
tall red type is seen, but far commoner is the 
dark, long-headed, blue-grey and brown- 
eyed type, and the children are notably 
darker haired than in Kintyre. In my 
observation, the Arran man is much 
darker than the Norseman or the main- 
land Scotsman, and distinctly longer-headed 
than the mesaticephalic Norse. He is prob- 
ably rather a blend between the aboriginal, 
dark, long-headed type of the early pre- 
historic races whose unearthed skulls his own 
head so greatly resembles, and the red and 
fair Scottish types who came and conquered at 
a later date, and who spoke the Keltic tongue. 
It is a mistake to suppose, as those who are 



, ARRAN IN THE VIKING AGE 121 

urging so vigorously the claims of the Norse 
are in danger of doing, that all the fair races 
of the world hailed originally from Norway ! 

The Norwegian of to-day is one of the 
most trusty and respectable men in Europe, 
and his influence is excellent, but his ancestors 
were the very opposite. Their influence was 
amongst the worst, the least fruitful of good 
that Europe has known, and the Norseman 
has himself, until the past twenty years, been 
glad to forget them and give his sons and 
daughters names of German origin instead 
of the old names of the Sagas. 

The attacks of the Scandinavian races, 
we are told, from the time of the half- 
mythical Ragnar Lodbrog in 856, occurred 
with "fearful frequency." They were not, 
of course, confined to the West of Scotland ; 
England, Ireland, Italy, Germany, and 
Russia were all sufferers. The Swedes 
directed their attacks mostly to Russia, the 
Danes to England, and the " Norroway men," 
with their smaller numbers and consequent 
inability to march inland and conquer a 
hostile country, aimed at Scotland. Where 



122 ARRAN 

innumerable water-ways and lochs made 
it easy for them to keep close under the 
protection of their ships, and enabled them 
to move with the utmost speed attainable 
in those days, speed which was utterly im- 
possible for land troops in a mountainous 
region like Scotland. 

The Rev. George Henderson, of Glasgow, 
and others have endeavoured to show that 
the Norsemen were able to make consider- 
able settlements ; but, keeping in mind the 
smallness of the population of their country, 
the heavy death-roll amongst a people whose 
hands were against all the world, and the 
fact that their very occupation necessitated 
their absence on the sea, it is difficult to 
believe that they settled in a real sense or in 
any numbers. They probably owed their 
strength and the terror of their name, as I 
have already suggested, to their power of 
concentration, which enabled them to deal 
with any great coalition in overwhelming 
force, rather than to their actual settlements. 
So that the dread of their power brought 
security to those few whom they could spare 



ARRAN IN THE VIKING AGE 123 

to garrison their forts or towers along the bays 
and harbours in which they sheltered from 
the storms, or collected their spoils. There 
seems to be little doubt that they acted as 
overlords in this manner, and, inducing the 
natives to join them, they often became allies 
and allowed the native chiefs to remain in 
power, as is shown by records, for example, in 
the case of Galloway. 

The Gaels, who joined forces in this way 
with them, are believed to be referred to in the 
famous name of Gallgall, or Stranger Gael, 
given to the people of the Southern Isles by 
the Irish annalists in the ninth century, or 
earlier possibly. But this is by no means 
certain, for any Gael separated from Ireland 
would be a stranger Gael. A tribe speaking 
their Gaelic with a slightly different accent or 
dialect would be marked men, just as an 
Aberdonian in the Clyde district, or a 
Lancastrian is in London to-day. On the 
other hand, it is difficult to believe that Gaels 
of any kind who had been Christians for 
some four hundred years would join with the 
heathen Norse in sacking the island of lona, 



124 ARRAN 

which was invaded and devastated and its 
monks slain by them, according to the annals 
of Ulster, in the year 794. The names of 
the Gall Gael chiefs given from time to 
time are indisputably Gaelic, and the alterna- 
tive is to suppose they had reverted to 
paganism under the teaching of their over- 
lords and conquerors. Probably not till we 
awaken to the importance of a thorough 
investigation of the vast number of historical 
documents which are still preserved in 
Ireland, Scotland, and Wales will we be able 
to disentangle the extraordinary medley of 
fact and myth and fable and utter misconcep- 
tion which now makes up this part of our 
early history. 

Assuredly we have no cause to boast of 
the Norsemen who have been so long and so 
foolishly idolised in England and Scotland. 
Their doings have been much exaggerated ; 
they left us little or nothing in exchange for 
the civilisation they destroyed. As Mr. A. H. 
Johnson says : " The Northmen never seem 
to have been original, never to have invented 
anything ; rather they readily assumed the 



ARRAN IN THE VIKING AGE 125 

language, religion, ideas of their adopted 
country, and soon became absorbed in the 
society around them. This will be found to 
be invariably the case, except with regard to 
Iceland, where the previous occupation was 
too insignificant to affect the new settlers. 
In Russia they became Russians ; in France, 
Frenchmen; in Italy, Italians; in England, 
twice over Englishmen, first in the case of 
the Danes, and secondly in that of the later 
Normans. Everywhere they became fused 
in the surrounding nationality. ..." Again 
he says, " They borrow everything and make 
it their own." 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE ARRAN MEN AT THE BATTLE OF 
BRUNANBURH 

THE FLEET IN LAMLASH BAY 

Of great interest is the fact that the 
Sudreyar, as the men of Arran and the rest 
of the Southern Hebrides were called by 
the Norse, joined the King of Alban, Con- 
stantine iii., in his great battle with the 
Saxons under the famous King Athelstane in 
937 A.D. The leader of the islanders was 
Anlaf, or Aulaf, king of the Gall Gael. The 
Anglo-Saxon poem, " The Battle of Brunan- 
burh,"and the ChroniclerstellhowConstantine, 
after gathering his forces in Lamlash Bay, met 
the forces of Athelstane in the river Humber ; 
but from Lamlash to the Humber is a far cry 
when the journey is made by slow galleys, and 



THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH 127 

there is no doubt that the battle really took 
place somewhere in Cumberland or Wales or 
Lancashire, sites having been suggested in 
all these places. The defeat of Constantine 
seems to have been complete. The poem 
describing the fight reaches the high water- 
mark of Anglo-Saxon poetry. It has spirit, 
and the graphic quality springing from im- 
aginative power, a quality which is generally 
lacking in the literature of the Saxons. The 
description of Constantine, " the old warrior," 
helped by the characteristic repetitions, rises 
by a sort of cumulative process to the 
tremendous crescendo note reached in the 
three concluding lines of the following 
passage : — 

" So there eke the sage Constantine, 
hoary warrior, came by flight to his country north. 
He had no cause to exult in the meeting of swords. 

The hero, grizzly-haired, had no cause to boast 

of the bill-clashing, the old deceiver : 

nor Anlaf the more, with the remnant of their armies ; 

they had no cause to boast that they in war's works 

the better men were in the battle stead, 

at the conflict of banners, at the meeting of spears, 

at the concourse of men, at the traffic of weapons ; 

when they on the slaughter field 

with Edward's offspring played." 



128 ARRAN 

The references to the islanders who took so 
prominent a part in the battle are several — 

" The foe they crushed, the Scottish people ; 
and the ship-pirates, death-doomed, fell." 

And again — 

" There was made flee the North-men's chieftain." 

My quotation is from Thrupp's excellent 
translation. 

The "Scottish people" are, of course, the 
Irish under Anlaf, who was also the leader of 
the men from Orkney and the north, and of 
the Hebrid Islanders, the Gall Gael, or "sea- 
pirates." 

The battle was not, as has been supposed, 
a race conflict, as Mr. York Powell points out. 
"The Annals of Clonmacnois" say that the 
Sudreyar were led by their king Gealachan, 
and the conflict was between them allied 
with the Scots under Anlaf, the Cumbrians, 
and Vikings of the west, and Athelstane. 

Later in the same century Arran and the 
rest of the Sudereys once more were captured 
and incorporated in the Orcadian earldom by 
Sigurd, who left his brother Gilli as his captain ; 



THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH 129 

but Gilli was soon overthrown by Coinneach, 
brother of the King of Man. 

At the great battle of Clontarf, of which the 
Irish annahsts make so much, the men of the 
South Isles were also present ; we are told 
that there was an " immense army from Innis- 
gall," and their king Aulaf, or Anlaf, was 
amongst the many kings and great warriors 
slain in this fight, which broke for ever 
the dominion of the Scandinavian races in 
Ireland. The men of the South Isles, being 
still under their Norse allies, fought on the 
side of the foreigners against their Scoto- 
Irish kinsmen. 

Thorfin, the famous Jarl of Orkney, was a 
little later able to overawe Scotland, even if 
he did not actually conquer it, so that only 
Strathclyde, Fife, and the Lothians were able 
to keep him out. It is probable, however, 
that, as the late Mr. York Powell says, his 
dominion meant little more than that he took 
tribute and was recognised as overlord. 
Before his death in 1074 Thorfinn visited 
Rome, and adopted the Christian faith. On 
his death the mixed Norsemen or Danes of 
9 



I30 ARRAN 

Ireland revolted and invaded the coasts 
of Alban, and Diarmid MacMaelnambo of 
Dublin came down upon the Hebrides and 
made himself their king. His successor, 
Fingal MacGodred, was defeated by Godred 
Crovan, who also made himself king of Dublin. 
Godred had a curiously chequered history, and 
is claimed by Professor Gollancz as the 
original of Shakespeare's Hamlet. 



MAGNUS BAREFOOT 

Magnus Barefoot, or Bareleg, was one of 
the most picturesque of all the many Norse- 
men who vexed the much-harried Hebrides, 
and he is the only one who lives to-day in 
legends still current amongst the people. The 
Norwegians had recently suffered utter defeat 
at the famous battle of Stamford Bridge from 
the Saxons under Harold, who were destined 
to supersede them as masters of the sea, and 
Magnus, who became king, entered into a 
treaty with Malcolm Canmore of Alban by 
which all the islands (which did not, by the 
way, belong to Malcolm) were ceded to 



THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH 131 

Norway. Magnus soon gave the islanders a 
taste of his quality, he was no mean soldier, 
and became their master. 

Kintyre has always been included in the 
Hebrides ; the capital of the old Dalriadic 
kingdom, its civilisation had been far in 
advance of the neighbouring islands, and its 
strategical position had rendered it of supreme 
importance. It was, therefore, always the 
most prized possession : under the treaty with 
Malcolm or Edgar it fell naturally to Magnus, 
but a legend which has done much to keep 
Magnus's name alive was invented, to the 
effect that, in order to make it rank amongst 
the islands ceded to him, he cheated Edgar 
by drawing his galleys over the narrow neck 
of land which connects it with the mainland 
of Argyll at Loch Tarbert. This was on 
Magnus's second visit in the year 1098. It 
was, of course, quite a common thing to draw 
the light-built galleys of the time across spits 
of land which divided loch from loch or sea 
from sea. It is said by Fordun that Donald 
Bane, the brother of Malcolm, was helped in 
his seizure of the throne of Scotland by 



132 ARRAN 

Magnus, and that as a reward he ceded the 
islands to him, and it is possible that this is 
the correct story. It is not of much import- 
ance to this narrative, but it is certain that 
Malcolm Canmore, that doughty warrior, was 
slain during his invasion of England in 1093, 
the year of Magnus's first visit to the Hebrides, 
and of Donald Bane's seizure of his brother's 
throne. 

Magnus it waswho, on his return toNorway, 
introduced the Highland dress amongst his 
people . . . "the king and his followers," 
according to the Saga of the famous Icelander, 
Sturleson, " went about the streets with bare 
legs, and wore short coats and cloaks." It 
was from this incident that the king received 
his name of " Barefoot," so says Worsaae. 

The terror of the second visit of Magnus 
in 1098 still survives in the legends of the 
island of Lewis, for the Lewis men, having 
been infamously used by his representative in 
the island, rose and slew him and the loose and 
dissolute crowd by whom he was supported. 
Magnus thereupon swept down upon the 
Lewis and burnt and slew without mercy, as 



THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH 133 

was his usual way on these occasions, only 
this seems to have been a peculiarly terrible 
and searching visitation. He passed on to 
the Sudereys, and utterly crushed out any 
sparks of revolt he could find, and there he 
spent the winter, and walked about amongst 
the natives clad in their own picturesque and 
well-loved costume. It is said that the kilt 
was a common dress in Norway for a century 
after his time. 

The death of Magnus brought back to the 
throne of the South Isles the son of Godred 
Crovan, Lagman, who after a few years went 
on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and 
Donald MacFad, of the Irish Scots, was made 
governor, until Olave, the remaining son of 
Godred Crovan, came to manhood. This 
Olave, King of Man and the Isles, grew to 
be a person of some note. He had been sent 
to the Court of William Rufus and Henry of 
England for his education, and proved a wise 
and diplomatic ruler. His son, Godred the 
Black, was a tyrant, whose raids upon the 
coasts around his home aroused the men of 
Morvern, and brought forth the man who was 



134 ARRAN 

to make the beCTinninor of the end of Norse 

o o 

power on the western coast. This was Som- 
hairle, translated into Norse as " Somerled " ; 
his father Gillibride was known as GilHbride 
nan Uaimh, or Gillibride of the Cave, his sister 
had married a daughter of King Harold of 
Norway. The legend goes that the old chief 
was driven by the oppression of the Norse- 
men to seek shelter in a cave of Morvern, for 
the invaders held not only the isles but 
Lochaber and great part of Argyll. Skene 
says that Gillibride was of purely Gaelic origin, 
and was the great-grandson of Imergi, one of 
two kings Maelbethad and Imergi, mentioned 
by the Saxon Chronicle as having submitted 
to King Knut in 103 1. It seems probable 
that they were representatives of the old kings 
of Dalriada. If this were so, it would be easy 
to understand that Gillibride was then in 
hiding, and that his young son should lead the 
men of Morvern against the men of Olave. 
According to the tradition, his first success 
was in conducting the clan MacAongais or 
Maclnnes out of the field in a masterly 
manner, after the utter defeat of the Argyll- 



THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH 135 

shire men. The Maclnneses, it is interestina 
to remember, as confirmation of this old tradi- 
tion, claim descent from Somerled's brother 
Auradan.* Encouraged by the discovery of 
so skilful a leader, the men of Morvern 
decided to try once again to throw off the 
Norse yoke, and appointed Somhairle their 
captain. 

* The Clan Donald, by Rev. A. and J. Macdonald ; also 
Skene. 



CHAPTER XV 

SOMERLED, THE HAMMER OF THE 
NORSEMEN 

If Edward i. was, as he himself said, the 
hammer of the Scots, Somerled was certainly 
the hammer of the Norsemen. Justice has 
hardly yet been done to the great work he 
did in putting an end to the encroachments 
of the Norsemen on the mainland of 
Scotland, and in expelling them from Loch- 
aber and Argyll, and secondly in making the 
conquest of the isles of Arran and Bute by 
David, who followed his lead, permanent and 
successful. His alliance with the daughter 
of the Norse leader Olave, king of the Isles, 
was another instance of the statesmanlike 
policy of the greatest of the old Highland 
chiefs. He alone it was who made it 

possible for the later Scottish kings to obtain 

136 













'^' 



'MiMi^::'yf:M::fM 



THE HAMMER OF THE NORSEMEN 137 

a foothold in the west, where danger had 
threatened for so many centuries from the 
overwhelming sea power of Norway. His 
conquests made in Argyll, on the mainland, 
far more than the desultory victories of the 
Scottish kings, made a united Scotland 
possible. The help afforded to Bruce by 
Somerled's grandson, Angus Oig of Kintyre, in 
the darkest hour of his fortunes, again, made 
it possible for that king, with a fuller know- 
ledge and wider perspective than were pos- 
sible to Somerled, to build permanently upon 
these great beginnings. As the authors of 
The History of the Clan Donald say — 

" Somerled was more than a warrior. He 
possessed not only the courage and dash 
which are associated with the Celtic char- 
acter ; he had the organising brain, the 
fertile resource, the art not only of winning 
battles, but of turning them to account ; that 
sovereign faculty of commanding the respect 
and allegiance of men which marks the true 
king. Without the possession of this im- 
perial capacity he could never, in the face of 
such tremendous odds, have wrested the 



138 ARRAN 

sovereignty of the Gael from his hereditary 
foes, and handed it to the Clan Cholla to be 
their inheritance for hundreds of years. He 
was the instrument by which the position, 
the power, the language of the Gael were 
saved from being overwhelmed by Teutonic 
influence, and Celtic culture and tradition 
received a new lease of life. He founded a 
family which played no ignoble part in 
Scottish history. If our faith in the principle 
of heredity is sometimes shaken by degener- 
ate sons of noble sires, when the last links of 
a line of long ago prove unworthy heirs of a 
great past, our faith is confirmed in it by the 
line of Princes that sat upon the Island 
throne, who as a race were stamped with the 
heroic qualities which characterised the son 
of Gillibride. Somerled's life struggle had 
been with the power of the Norseman, whose 
sun in the Isles he saw on the eve of setting. 
But he met his tragic fate in conflict with 
another and more formidable set of forces. 
This was the contest which Somerled be- 
queathed as a legacy to his successors. It 
was theirs to be the leading spirits in the 



THE HAMMER OF THE NORSEMEN 139 

resistance of the Gaelic race, language, and 
social life, to the new and advancing order 
which was already moulding into an organic 
unity the various nationalities of Scotland — 
the ever-increasing, ever-extending power of 
feudal institutions." 

According to Hugh Macdonald's MS. 
Somerled was a " well-tempered man, in body 
shapely, of a fair piercing eye, of middle 
stature, and of quick discernment." His 
leadership was entirely successful, and his 
victory was, as Gregory puts it, " the begin- 
ning of the ruin of the Norse Kingdom of 
the Isles." The Gaels from all parts crowded 
to his banner, and he wrested Argyll and 
Lochaber from the grip of the Norsemen. 
And there, in this land of grey hills and green 
waters, he " made a realm and reigned." 

In the Book of Ballymote Somhairle's 
pedigree is given as " Somerled, son of Gille- 
brigde, son of Gilliadamnain, son of Solaimh, 
son of Imergi." But the Book of Clanranald 
takes us back several steps further. It gives 
" Somerled, son of Giollabride, son of Giollia- 
damnain, son of Solomh, son of Mearghach 



HO ARRAN 

or Imergi, son of Suibhne, son of Niallghus, 
son of Gothfruigh, son of Fearghus, of the 
reign of Kenneth MacAlpin." 

There can be no doubt that the success of 
Somerled in clearing the Norsemen out of 
'* the western side of Alban, except the 
islands of the Finlochlann, called Innisgall," 
as the Book of Clanranald puts it, relieved 
the anxieties of the Scottish King David, 
who was unable to cope with the great power 
of the Norwegians on his coasts, and doubtless 
felt that their encroachments on the mainland 
were a still more serious menace to his king- 
dom. He, however, took heart and followed 
Somerled's victory by capturing from the 
Norsemen the islands of Arran and Bute in 
1 135, some two years later. These he conferred 
upon the victorious Somhairle, and allowed him 
to annex them to the " Kingdom of Argyll," 
of which he was, it is generally admitted, the 
hereditary king or chief. By this statesman- 
like policy of David the kingdom of the 
Southern Hebrides became a kind of buffer 
state between the kingdom of Alban and the 
Norse Vikings of the Northern or Outer 



THE HAMMER OF THE NORSEMEN 141 

Hebrides and Orkney. It also healed the old 
quarrel between the descendants of Malcolm, 
who had made alliance with Magnus Bare- 
foot, that arch enemy of the Innse Gall, and 
at the same time split any minor alliances 
that might have existed between the Gaels 
and the Norse Vikings. 

Somerled further strengthened his hold on 
the Isles, about the year 11 40, by marrying 
Ragnhilda, the daughter of Olave the Red, 
and sister of Godred, whose harsh and op- 
pressive rule had been the cause of the wide- 
spread revolt in which Somhairle had found 
his great opportunity. Godred soon saw 
that his enemy was like to crush him out of 
the rest of the Hebrides, for Somerled in 
1 1 56 joined with Thorfinn, a Manx chief, in 
a plot to place Dugall, a mere child, son of 
Somerled and Ragnhilda, on the throne of 
the Isles. Godred heard of the plot, and 
sailed from Man with a fleet to meet Somer- 
led, who with eighty ships was waiting for 
him. A terrific battle took place, which, at 
the end of a long day, found the combatants 
still determined and unbeaten. Having 



142 ARRAN 

tasted the quality of his great rival, Godred 
was glad to make terms by which all the 
islands south of the point of Ardnamurchan, 
of course including Kintyre, always regarded 
as an island, were ceded to Somerled, or 
rather to his son Dugall ; while Godred kept 
for himself Man, Skye, Coll, Tiree, and the 
Long Island. Mr. Dugald Mitchell suggests 
that a probable result of this arrangement 
was an exodus of the purely Norse popula- 
tion from the south islands, and of the purely 
Keltic portion of the population of the 
northern islands, which remained under 
Norwegian rule till a hundred years later. 
In 1 156 there seems to have been another 
quarrel between Godred and Somerled, who 
invaded Man with his fleet and added it to his 
dominions. Godred fled to Norway, where he 
remained till Somerled's death eight yearslater. 
In 1 159 the peace was made between 
the King of Scotland and Somerled, which 
resulted in the drawing up of the famous 
treaty of that date, held to be of so much im- 
portance that it formed an epoch for the dating 
of Scottish charters. 



THE HAMMER OF THE NORSEMEN 143 

In 1 1 64 Somerled had again fallen out 
with the Scottish monarch, for whose king- 
dom he had done so much. His object was, 
it is said, to make himself king of all Scot- 
land. Be this as it may, he sailed up the 
Clyde with a fleet of one hundred and sixty 
ships and a force of Scots from Ireland. He 
landed, according to tradition, at Renfrew, and 
Gregory thinks the old story is correct which 
states that he was there murdered in his tent 
by one of his own followers in whom he 
placed confidence. His son Gillecallum was 
also slain, and his men returned to the Isles. 
His body was taken to Saddell, in Kintyre, 
where his son Ragnald built the monastery of 
which the remains still stand, and endowed 
it with lands at Boltefean, in Kintyre, and 
Shisken in Arran. 

So died the man who preserved the iden- 
tity of the Gaels in the western Highlands 
and the islands of Innse Gall, and who put a 
stop for ever to the encroachments of the 
Norwegians on the mainland of Scotland. 
For, though there were subsequent attacks 
till the time of Alexander iii., no acre of 



144 ARRAN 

Scottish ground ever again knew a Nor- 
wegian owner, and no foothold of any perma- 
nence was again obtained even amongst the 
islands. Only the Orkneys and Shetlands, 
which never had at any time belonged to the 
Scottish kings, remained under Norse rule 
till their cession to Scotland in 1564. 



CHAPTER XVI 

HOW KING HAKON FOUGHT AT LARGS 

There are few direct references to Arran in 
the chronicles up to this time, but it was 
passing for all that through the heart of the 
fire in those terrible years. And, judging from 
its position in the very midst of the great 
arena of the fight, and the extraordinary 
number of its historical remains and monu- 
ments, it was saturated with the blood of the 
fallen, Norseman and Gael, After the death 
of Somerled his possessions in the Isles were 
divided between his three sons by Ragnhilda 
— Mull, Coll and Tiree, and Jura went to 
Dugall ; Isla and Kintyre to Reginald; and 
Bute to Angus. Arran is supposed to have 
been divided between Angus and Reginald. 
Somerled's possessions on the mainland were 



146 ARRAN 

divided between his sons by his former 
marriage. 

On the death of Reginald, son of Somer- 
led, his possessions in Argyll and the Isles 
went to his eldest son Donald, while his 
younger son Ruari got Bute and Arran and 
the extensive district of Garmoran on the 
mainland. The territory given to his son 
Angus by Somerled had been seized by 
Reginald, and Angus and his three sons were 
slain in the quarrel. 

James, one of the sons of Angus, had left a 
daughter, Jane, who had married Alexander, 
fifth High Steward of Scotland, who seems 
to have seized the coveted island of Bute on 
his wife's behalf on the death of Angus. 
This was about the year 1165 : it was the 
beginning of the long connection of the 
Stewarts with Bute. From it many im- 
portant results grew, for it was the first real 
footing of the Scottish royal house in the 
islands. 

Alexander 11., a great king, in 1236 sent 
to King Hakon of Norway to ask whether 
he would give up his possessions in the 



KING HAKON AT LARGS 147 

Hebrides, which it was pretended Magnus 
Barefoot had taken from Malcolm, though 
Malcolm had never any title to them. To 
this Hakon replied with perfect truth, that the 
King of Scotland had no right in the islands 
when they were won by Magnus from God- 
red Crovan. Alexander then offered to buy 
the islands. This offer Hakon declined. 
Alexander made other attempts without avail, 
till the year 1249, when, according to the 
" Saga of King Hakon," he collected his 
forces and made it manifest "... that he 
would not desist till he had placed his stan- 
dard on the cliffs of Thurso, and had reduced 
under his own rule all the provinces which 
the Norse king held westward of the German 
ocean." Alexander sailed up the west coast 
and sought the help of Eogan (Ewan), great- 
grandson of Somerled, who, of course, 
held his lands, like the other island lords, 
from the King of Norway, while any posses- 
sions they had on the mainland were held 
of the King; of Scotland. Eog-an refused to 
join Alexander, and the king sailed up as far 
as the island of Kerrera, opposite the town of 



148 ARRAN 

Oban, and was there seized with an illness 
from which he died. It was not till 1262 
that the new king, Alexander iii., after 
attempting to enter into negotiations with 
King Hakon, attacked the northern islands, 
then held by Roderick MacSomerled and 
his sons Dugall and Allan, who sent word 
to the Norse king that Alexander purposed to 
subdue all the Hebrides if life were granted 
him. King Hakon sailed for the southern 
isles with "a mighty and splendid armament 
of upwards of 120 vessels," including the 
great ship which the " Saga of King Hakon " 
tells us had been specially built at Bergen. 
It had twenty-seven banks of oars, and was 
** ornamented with heads and necks of 
dragons overlaid with gold." 

King Dugall, we are told, and Magnus, 
King of Man, and many others from the Isles 
joined him, but Angus Mor, chief of the whole 
clan Donald, and lord of I slay and South 
Kintyre, who now held of the Scottish crown, 
refused, while Bute was of course held by the 
Steward in right of Jane, Nic Somhairle. 
King Eogan, of the house of Dougal of Lorn, 



KING HAKON AT LARGS 149 

also visited Hakon, and explained that as he 
held more land of the King of Scots than of 
the King of Norway he could not follow him. 
Hakon then took Bute and gave it to Ruari, 
son of Reginald, who claimed it. 

So the honours were with the Nor- 
wegian king when he arrived with his great 
fleet in Lamlash Bay in the middle of 
Auo-ust. Alexander then commenced a 
waiting game, as is shown by the " Hakon 
Saga," in the hope of detaining the Nor- 
wegian fleet till the bad weather set in, for 
the Norse and the Vikings generally were 
"summer sailors," and returned to their 
own lands in the winter season. Long 
negotiations went on. Alexander saw clearly 
his own weakness, for he seems to have been 
willing to whittle down his grand claim to 
the whole Hebrides to a demand for Arran, 
Bute, and the Cumbraes, but these he would 
in no wise part with. Having no fleet, 
Alexander waited on shore at Largs with 
his army. 

Hakon was no savage Viking, but a wise 
and civilised ruler, who granted protection to 



ISO ARRAN 

the various abbeys round the scene of 
hostilities, and did things generally on a grand 
and liberal scale. Time had wrought great 
changes, and the southern isles were popu- 
lous and busy and prosperous once more, as 
they had been before the Norse incursions. 

Still the truce continued, still Alexander 
played the Fabian part, and still the Norse 
king showed a desire to come to terms. 
Hakon's patience at last gave way, and at the 
end of September he marshalled his great fleet 
opposite the village of Largs, and sent sixty 
of his vessels up Loch Long, from which the 
leaders, the King of Man, and Allan, brother 
of King Dugall, caused them to be drawn over 
the narrow neck of land at Tarbert into Loch 
Lomond. In the grandiloquent words of 
Snorro Sturleson, " the pursuing, shielded 
warriors of the thrower of the whizzing spear 
drew their boats across the broad isthmus. 
Our fearless troops, the exactors of contribu- 
tion, with flaming brands wasted the popu- 
lous islands in the lake, and the towers and 
houses around its bays." Allan led his men 
to the further side of the loch into the 



KING HAKON AT LARGS 151 

Lennox, and " marched far over into Scot- 
land," burning and harrying on all sides. 

He had been better employed under King 
Hakon, for on September 30 the storm 
Alexander had been waiting and hoping for 
fell upon the fleet. Ten ships of the Loch 
Long expedition were utterly wrecked. The 
storm raged for two days, and King Hakon 
got into his boat and rowed ashore on one 
of the Cumbraes, and there had mass sung. 

Many of the ships had been torn from 
their anchorage and driven ashore on the 
rocks of Largs and the Cumbraes, while the 
rest of the fleet was driven up the Clyde. 
Hakon, seeing the threatening attitude of 
the natives who covered the hills, landed a 
force to protect his stranded vessels and en- 
able the men to refloat them. Then it was 
that the army of Alexander appeared, " 1500 
knights and barons mounted on fleet Spanish 
chargers, and a large body of foot," while be- 
hind them the native peasantry appear to 
have made a formidable show. 

The Norwegian force landed by Hakon is 
given by Snorro as only 900 men, and even 



152 ARRAN 

if there were twice as many, the force does not 
seem to have been in any kind of proportion to 
that of the Scots. That they gave a good 
account of themselves is clear ; forming in a 
circle, with their long spears, they met the 
onslaught of the mounted knights of Alexan- 
der and the furious charges for which the 
Scottish foot were famous. 

The best account of the disaster that 
followed is given by the Saga, which is very 
honest, though its language is naturally 
reluctant, and the truth comes out that the 
retreat of the Norsemen became a panic, 
in which, as the writer euphemistically puts 
it, "each tried to be faster than the others." 
The Scots, he says, " had a great host of 
footmen, but that force," he adds candidly, 
" was badly equipped as to weapons. The 
most of them had bows and Irish bills. The 
Scots came on foot, and pelted them with 
stones. Then a great shower of weapons fell 
upon the Northmen. But they fell back facing 
the enemy, and shielded themselves. But 
when the Northmen came as far as the brow 
of the descent which went down from the 



■■->,''• ■■...'■'.■'''■ ': ', \'' sH 



KING HAKON AT LARGS 153 

hillock, then each tried to be faster than the 
others. And when those which were down 
below on the shingle saw that, they thought 
that the Northmen wanted to flee. Then the 
Northmen ran to the boats, and in that way 
some of them put off from the land and came 
out to the ships. But most of the boats sunk, 
and then some men were lost. Many North- 
men ran under the lee of the bark, and some 
got up into her. When the Northmen came 
down from the hillock into the dell between 
it and the shinofle, then most of them took to 
running. Then some one called out to them 
to turn back. Then some men turned back, 
but still few. There fell one of the King's 
bodyguard, Hakon of Steni. Then the 
Northmen still ran away." 



CHAPTER XVII 

KING HAKON AT LAMLASH 

That same day, the Saga tells us, King 
Hakon " sailed away from the Cumbraes and 
out to Molas Isle (Lamlash), and lay there 
some nights. Thither came to him those 
men whom he had sent to Ireland ; and told 
him that the Irish would keep the whole host 
that winter on the understanding that Hakon 
would free them from the sway of the 
Englishmen." 

Hakon, however, decided to sail northward 
to Orkney. He had made a brave fight, but 
it could only have been a piece of bravado 
that on his way he gave to Dugall, and 
Allan his brother, the lands of King Eoghan, 
Bute to Ruari, and Arran to Margad or 
Marchad, and also the castle of Dunaverty to 
Dugall. 



KING HAKON AT LAMLASH 155 

The old king reached Kirkwall, there 
intending to wait till he could gather another 
force, but the terrible disaster he had suffered, 
and no doubt fatigue and anger, brought on 
a fever from which he died. His body was 
taken to Norway, and buried in the Cathedral 
of Bergen. He had reigned for nearly fifty 
years, and his name is one of the greatest on 
the roll of the Norwegian kings. 

The battle of Largs went to Alexander. 
Much has been made of it, but it was not the 
victory it has been claimed to be, the force of 
the Scottish king being an overwhelming 
one when pitted against the, at the most, few 
hundred Norsemen who were able to land. 
In truth, the storm did more for Scotland on 
that occasion than the forces of its king. 
The battle, however, ended the most terrible 
chapter in the history of the Western Isles 
and Highlands of Scotland. It is true that 
for a full hundred years, since the days of 
Somerled, the time had been a comparatively 
peaceful one in the Southern Isles. Yet still 
for Scotland it was essential that the 
Norwegian menace should be removed 



156 ARRAN 

finally from her doors. It is satisfactory to 
those who love the Hebrides to remember 
that one of our own blood and race was un- 
doubtedly the real "Tamer of the Ravens," 
the true Hammer of the Norsemen, and not 
the Scottish king. 

Hakon was succeeded by Magnus, who, on 
the death of the King of Man in 1265, was 
persuaded to hand over all the Western 
Islands formally to Scotland, it being stipu- 
lated in the treaty that such of the subjects 
of Norway who wished to leave the Hebrides 
should have full liberty to do so, with all 
their effects, while those who wished to remain 
were to become loyal subjects of Scotland. 



PART VII 
THE DAYS OF WALLACE 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE GREAT WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 

THE BATTLE OF STIRLING BRIDGE 

The relations of England and Scodand were 
never more friendly than in 1290, when the 
Scots paid Edward i. the compliment of 
calling him to act as umpire between the 
claimants for the crown of Scotland, on the 
death of Alexander iii. and of his little grand- 
daughter, the " Maid of Norway." To this 
girl, then a mere child, it had been arranged 
that Edward's son should be married, and so 
fulfil the great dream of the ambitious English 
king by uniting the two kingdoms. 

Until the Union of the Crowns in 1707 
Scotland had no enemy in the world save 
England, and during the reigns of David i. 
and her three excellent Alexanders she had 
been happy and prosperous. Mr. Ren wick 



i6o ARRAN 

says : " It is universally agreed that, through- 
out her long career as an independent king- 
dom, no period was more prosperous for 
Scotland than the century and a half which 
elapsed between the accession of the first David 
and the death of the last Alexander. . . . 
The Scottish monarchs . . . ruled over a united 
people from Maidenkirk to John o' Groats." 

It is well to remember this, for Scotsmen 
are apt to despise their early ancestors, and 
to believe that all good things commenced 
in the reign of Robert Bruce. Yet many 
of our native kings, like Brude or Bride of 
Columba's time, Constantine of Brunanburh 
fame, and that grand old fighter, Malcolm 
Canmore, showed sterling character and 
strength. The Alexanders and David i. were 
indeed men of conspicuous wisdom and up- 
rightness. Only with the Norman and feudal 
taint came the tendency to tyranny so familiar 
in England and in some of the later Scottish 
kings ; though it must be admitted that the 
Stewarts were conspicuously superior, both in 
mind and manners, to the Plantagenet and 
Tudor monarchs. Indeed, no king of the low 



. THE DAYS OF WALLACE i6i 

mental calibre of the Georges ever sat upon 
the Scottish throne. On this point the old 
ballad put the feeling of the Scottish people 
admirably — 

"Wha the deil hae we gotten for a king, 
But a wee, wee German lairdie ! 

When we gaed owre tae bring him hame. 
He was delvin' in his kail yairdie. 

He was sheughin' kail, and layin' leeks, 

Without the hose, and but the breeks ; 

And up his beggar duds he cleeks, 
This wee, wee German lairdie." 

The laws of the Scots kingdom made kingly- 
tyranny difficult, just as the old Scottish pre- 
feudal laws made difficult the tyranny of the 
great lords and chiefs. It was the feudal 
system that made it easy in both countries. 

Save in the set-back due to the Norse 
invasions, Scotland suffered no more terrible 
calamity than the persecutions of Edward i. 
and his efforts to convert the country into an 
English province. The only satisfaction is 
that they ended in utter failure, and brought 
the commons into the field, as men whose 
honour and weal were alike concerned in 
keeping their country independent. This was 



i62 ARRAN 

a negative kind of benefit, and it is probable 
that the same end would have been far better 
served by other and less costly means ; but 
it is a benefit of which historians of a certain 
type have made much, as they have of the 
Norse invasions — as though a great war can 
be a benefit, can be anything other than a 
great calamity ; as though invasions by North 
American Indians could be anything less than 
a great curse to a civilised community. What 
the Norsemen and the feudal system robbed 
us of was a national culture which had grown 
up during a thousand years, a culture which 
was our own, which had received the imprint 
of our race, and which had splendid prospects 
of development. 

There was little of patriotism in the thirteen 
candidates who came forward to claim the 
crown of Alexander iii, on his sad and sudden 
death by the fall of his horse over the cliffs 
at Kinghorn in Fife. Only two of them, 
indeed, had any real claim ; but it suited 
Edward's purpose to cause difficulty and 
confusion, so that in making his award as 
umpire he might place the successful candidate 



THE DAYS OF WALLACE 163 

under an obligation to himself. It cannot 
be said that the candidates were in any sense 
Scottish in feeling or sentiment or education ; 
they all had a share of Scottish blood in the 
female line. It was a dark hour for Scotland 
this when, as the poet says, her **golde 
changed into lede." After eighteen months 
of deliberation, Edward gave his award to 
John Baliol, a man of weak character but 
not without courage. As soon as he became 
king, Edward commenced to heap indignities 
upon him ; assuming the character of an over- 
lord, to which he had no tittle of right, he 
commanded that any act of injustice, or 
complaint should be referred to him by the 
King of Scotland, who must appear before 
him personally at Westminster. Even Baliol, 
the "toom tabard," could not stand this kind 
of degradation, and he threw off his allegiance 
and invaded England. 

Edward had now got what he aimed at, 
and he marched north with a huge army 
backed by a great fleet. Taking Berwick, 
then our first seaport, he slew, in the streets 
of the town, no less than seventeen thousand 



i64 ARRAN 

persons, and finally utterly routed Baliol's 
army at Dunbar. He then marched north 
as far as Elgin, and made himself master 
of the country. Baliol submitted and did 
penance before the English knights in the 
churchyard of Strathcathro. His crown was 
taken from his brow, and he was publicly 
unfrocked, while he stood and admitted his 
guilt, dressed only in his shirt and drawers. 
The crown he resigned, and he was sent a 
prisoner to the Tower of London. The 
insult was deeply felt by the Scottish people. 
Edward appointed the Earl of Surrey 
Guardian of Scotland, filled all the castles 
with English garrisons and the public offices 
with Englishmen, and took away to West- 
minster the famous Stone of Destiny on 
which the Scottish kings had been crowned 
from immemorial time. It is, however, pretty 
clear that this "lawyer king," as he has been 
called, did not remove the national documents 
as has been stated. Mr. Joseph Bain has 
cleared this stain from his character. Fearing 
lest the Scots should join Philip of France 
in his war against him, he ordered that no 



THE DAYS OF WALLACE 165 

Scotsman should be allowed to leave the 
kingdom. 

This was in January 1 296-7. In the winter 
of the same year a young man, son of Sir 
Malcolm Wallace of Elderslie in Renfrew, was 
insulted by the English in the streets of 
Lanark. With a handful of men and his 
friend Sir John the Graeme (the remains of 
whose castle may still be seen near Balfron) 
they fought their way through the streets to 
his house, from which they escaped into the 
woods. The English governor, Haselrig, 
knowing that Wallace's young sweetheart, the 
heiress of the Bradfuites of Lamington, had 
helped their escape, had her put to death ; and 
Wallace, the first of Scottish patriots, who had 
already been engaged in fighting the invaders, 
came into prominence by the revenge he ex- 
acted for this murder. He broke into the 
house of the governor, Haselrig, at midnight, 
and, dragging him into the street, had him 
instantly beheaded. The people of the town 
then rose, and slew twelve-score of the men of 
Edward's garrison. 

Some of the nobles now came over to the 



i66 ARRAN 

popular side. Amongst them, the Steward of 
Scotland and Sir John Stewart of Bonkill 
joined Wallace, who united his force, largely 
composed of Lanark townsmen, with that 
under Sir William Douglas. 

The Stewarts brought into the field the 
men of Bute and Arran, the famous Brandani ; 
and after the successful campaign in the 
Glasgow neighbourhood, Wallace appears to 
have taken them, with "Westland men all 
sturdy, stout, and bold, five hundred next, 
Sir John the Graeme he got, Lundie five 
hundred more," in his march through Glen- 
dochart to Brander and Loch Awe to trap 
the Irish mercenary general, Mac Fadzean. 
Thence they seem to have marched to Ard- 
chattan, and here held a kind of conference 
with the West Higrhland leaders. 

Carrick suofgrests that it was owino- to the 
growing strength of Wallace's force, and 
possibly to his severe punishment of deserters 
of rank, that some of the barons left him 
a little later. 

These deserters included the best of the 
nobles, like Sir William of Douglas, the 



THE DAYS OF WALLACE 167 

Steward, Stewart of Bonkill, Robert Bruce, 
Lindsay, and the Bishop of Glasgow, Wishart. 
Wallace marched north, followed only by his 
poorer adherents, the free yeomanry of Scot- 
land. These, as Carrick says, were the tenants 
and descendants of tenants of the crown and 
church lands, or those who occupied farms on 
the demesnes of the barons, for which they 
paid an equivalent rent in money or produce. 
They had the power "of removing to what- 
ever place they might think most desirable, 
and owed no military service except to the 
king for the defence of the country. Among 
them the independence of Scotland always 
found its most faithful and stubborn supporters. 
These liberi firmarii, for so they are called 
in the Chartularies and Chamberlain's Ac- 
counts, were considered so useful . . . that, 
during the minority of the Maid of Norway, 
a sum of money appears to have been distri- 
buted among them as an inducement to remain 
on the crown lands of Liberton and Lawrence- 
toun, which they were preparing to leave in con- 
sequence of a mortality amongst their cattle." 
These and the freemen of the boroughs, 



i68 ARRAN 

rather than the cottars or villeins who followed 
the barons, we are told, supplied the material 
out of which Wallace recruited his ranks ; and 
the extraordinary frequency with which the 
Scottish nobles, including even the Steward 
and Robert Bruce himself, changed sides, 
leaving Wallace for Edward and Edward for 
Wallace, made little difference beyond disgust- 
ing and disheartening the great leader. 

At the battle of Stirling Bridge it is prob- 
able that Sir John Menteith, on whom the 
lordship of Arran had been conferred by 
the Steward, and also Stewart of Bonkill, 
leader of the Arran men, were all present. 
The Steward was now on the side of the 
English, but his tenants were on that of 
the people. He played a curious part, for, 
pretending to make peace for the English 
with the Scots, he turned round upon them 
when the actual fighting began, and with the 
Earl of Lennox assisted the Scots in pursu- 
ing and killing the English who were trying 
to save themselves. It may have been a 
deliberate trick on their part, but it was not 
an honourable trick. In fact, never did the 



^^^^''■^y:? 



, • ''p 



THE DAYS OF WALLACE 169 

great mass of the Scoto-Norman nobility show 
in a meaner Ho-ht than all throuofh this cam- 
paign and at the great commoner's battle of 
Stirling Bridge, when Wallace unaided, nay, 
hindered, by the nobility, utterly annihilated 
a huge English army. 

THE BRANDANES AT THE BATTLE OF 
FALKIRK 

The most famous achievement of the Brand- 
ani was undoubtedly the prolonged resistance 
and splendid devotion they showed at the 
battle of Falkirk — a battle which, though it 
ended in defeat, was one of the things of 
which Scotsmen may well be proud. There 
Wallace was at his greatest and best, and 
there the commoners of Scotland — small lairds, 
tacksmen, and "kindly tenants," and the in- 
dependent clansmen from the non-feudal, 
Gaelic-speaking districts of Scotland — showed 
best their tenacity and their stern bravery ; 
for Falkirk, like later Poitiers, was essentially 
a soldiers' battle. And of all the soldiers 
engaged in it, the name of the " Brandanys " 
comes down to us as those who bore the brunt 



lyo ARRAN 

of the fight. The subsequent references to 
them in the story of Wallace shows in what 
high estimation they were held. They it was 
who withstood and defeated the great attack 
of Lincoln and Hereford, and the second on- 
slaught by Bek and Bruce, and they it was, 
" the men who would hazard anything," who 
at the end of the fight were called upon when 
Wallace gathered a few chosen men to guard 
the retreat of the remnant of his army. So 
effective does their resistance and the general- 
ship of Wallace appear to have been in cover- 
ing the retreat of his men, that there was no 
rout or disorder or pursuit ; though they were 
but a handful, the English were glad to allow 
them to retire unmolested ; and it is certain 
that the Scots were able to bury quietly the 
dead Sir John the Graeme, and possibly 
Bonkill, in Falkirk graveyard before their 
march westwards upon Stirling. It was, in- 
deed, not till four days later that Edward 
entered that town. He had won, but his army 
had had their fill of fighting, and he knew it. 
The Lord of Arran was at this time, as we 
have said, Sir John Menteith, who was a 



THE DAYS OF WALLACE 171 

Stewart ; Blind Harry tells us how he had 
joined Wallace : 

"Sir John Monteith was then of Arran lord, 
To Wallace came and made a plain record, 
With witness there by his oath he him band [bound], 
Faithful to keep to Wallace and Scotland." 

Sir John, " the false Menteith," is one of the 
most famous figures in Scottish history, as the 
manwholaterbetrayedWallace to the English. 

The lordship of the island of Arran had 
been given to him by the Steward of Scotland 
a very little earlier, but the Arran men 
followed his nephew Bonkill, brother of the 
Steward, as the representative of Jane, grand- 
daughter of Angus, son of Somerled. 

It is curious that Menteith's brother was 
at this time governor of the great castle of 
Rothesay in Edward's interest, while Brodick 
castle was held by Menteith himself for the 
Scots. It is clear that the natives were 
wholly and heartily in sympathy with the 
popular cause, despite the fact that Rothesay 
was in the hands of Edward. 

The English army which marched on 
Falkirk, according to English accounts, was 



172 ARRAN 

a magnificent one : it numbered over 123,000 
men, including 3000 horsemen armed- at all 
points, and 4000 hobilers or light horse, while 
the footmen numbered 80,000 ; but these were 
not all, for reinforcements came up on the 
march. The army, moreover, included Ed- 
ward's splendid veterans who had done such 
service in the French war. It was supported by 
a great fleet of vessels anchored in the Forth, 
with which communication was quite easy by 
the river Carron, then navigable right up to 
the present town of Falkirk, Grahamston, and 
Bainsford — or more properly Briansford ; for 
the name was taken from that of Brian le Joy, 
Prior of the Knights Templars in Scotland, 
who joined Edward and was slain by Wal- 
lace's own hand in Callendar Wood, near this 
spot. With him were many of the Scottish 
nobles who had also joined Edward, and one 
of them, the Earl of Angus, who was with 
Wallace, is said to have sent secret informa- 
tion to Edward as to the position of the 
Scottish army and of Wallace's intention to 
make a night attack. So was Scotland be- 
trayed on all sides by her Norman nobility. 



THE DAYS OF WALLACE 173 

On Edward's side were arrayed all the 
great men of his realm, Lincoln and Here- 
ford, Butler and Clifford, FitzAlan and Fitz- 
Marmaduke, Hastings and Bruce. 

The Scottish army numbered 30,000, and it 
had the fatal defect of being almost without 
cavalry. Wallace was in favour of avoiding 
so great an army, and adopting a waiting 
policy by retiring north. There were serious 
dissensions amongst the three leaders, and 
much jealousy. So the little army, consisting 
of spearmen chiefly, paused on that historic 
plain, close to the remains of the Roman city 
of Camelon — a plain which had been the 
battleground of Scotland during so many 
ages. The three divisions of the army were 
under Wallace, Comyn, and Sir John Stewart 
of Bonkill. It is said that Stewart wished to 
take supreme command, as brother to the 
High Steward, who was not present ; Comyn, 
again, claimed the command on account of his 
near kinship to the throne ; while Wallace de- 
clined to surrender his authority. One remark 
of Stewart's, quoted by Blind Harry, is of 
interest, as it shows, whether Stewart actually 



174 ARRAN 

made it or not, that the retainers of the peers 
had joined the popular cause independently 
of their feudal superiors — 

" Then of your men be not so vain, but mind 
Had each his own there would be few left." 

"If every nobleman in Scotland were to claim 
his part of those vassals which now follow 
your banners, your own personal retainers 
would make but a sorry appearance in sup- 
port of your high pretensions." ^ 

Comyn deserted at the beginning of the 
battle, taking with him 10,000 men ; leaving 
Stewart with his Selkirk archers and his 
Arran and Bute men, and MacDuff with the 
men of Fife, to bear the brunt of Hereford's 
attack. Stewart, according to Blind Harry, 
met the advancing division of 30,000 men 
with his 10,000 : 

". . . the brave Stewart stood so fierce and hot. 
That Hareford's men lay dead upon the spot. 
When spears were broke, boldly their swords they drew, 
And many thousand of the Southron slew. 
The rest they fled unto their king with grief. 
Who sent ten thousand for a fresh relief." 

* Carrick. 



THE DAYS OF WALLACE 175 

The Brandani fought on though their 
leader fell early in the day, and Wallace, 
according to Blind Harry, said — 

" They have done well in that fellon stoure ; * 
Rescue them now, and take a high honour." 

They had withstood the onset of a whole 
division, and being freemen, lairds, and free 
clansmen, and not feudal serfs or vassals, they 
were used to acting independently, and so, 
though leaderless, fought on. Wyntoun 
says : 

" The Scottis thare slayne were in that stoure ; 
There Jhon Stwart apon fute, 
Wyth him the Brandanys thare of Bute." 

It has been always a sore thing for Scottish 
historians to believe that Bruce, afterwards 
the good king, was on Edward's side at that 
great fight : it is humiliating, but the fact 
was evidently too universally known during 
Bruce's own lifetime to be suppressed. 

Fordun makes it quite clear, and he wrote 
about the year 1380, or only some fifty years 
after the death of Bruce, and must have been 
born not more than fifteen or twenty years after 

* Dust of turmoil. 



176 ARRAN 

that event, when the story of the great struggle 
was in every one's mouth. He says : — 

"While the Scots were holding their 
ground invincible, and could not be broken 
by either force or stratagem, this Robert of 
Bruce, with a body of men commanded by 
Antony de Bek, taking a long circuit round 
a mountain, attacked the Scots in the rear. 
Thus the Scots, whose ranks were impene- 
trable and invincible in front, were cunningly 
vanquished in the rear." Blind Harry gives 
the same account. 

Wyntoun also, who wrote in 1426, would no 
doubt have been glad enough to suppress facts 
which soiled the character of so popular a hero 
as Bruce, had it been possible to do so. It 
remained for later historians near to our own 
day to attempt the task, but, however un- 
palatable, 

"Truth will stand though all things failin'." 

Blind Harry tells how the Brandani stood 
over their fallen leader : 

" Sir John the Graym, and mony worthy wicht, 
Wepyt in woe for sorrow of that sicht, 



. THE DAYS OF WALLACE 177 

When Bruce his battaill apon the Scottis straik, 
Thair cruel com * made cowards for to quake ; 
Lord Cumyn fled to Cummyrnauld away. 
About the Scottis the Suthernes lappit they 
The men of Bute before thair lord thai stud, 
Defendand him, when fell streams of blood, 
Were there about in floodis where they went. 
Bathed in blood was Bruce's sword and dress. 
Through fell slaughter of trewmen of his own. 
Soon to the death the Scots were overthrown. 

So, exposed to the famous bowmen of 
England, and surrounded by the men of Bruce 
and Bek, the close-locked, invincible schiltrons 
of Brandanes were mown down till they lay 
heaped up like a wall around their fallen 
leader. Then Wallace gathered his knights, 
and, ordering his army to retire towards the 
Torwood, where they would be protected from 
Edward's cavalry and bowmen, to cover their 
retreat — 

" He and Sir John the Graham, and Lauder then. 
Stayed with three hundred stout West Countrymen, 
Expert in war would hazard anything." 

So much the great leader thought of our 
forbears of the West, to whom went the chief 
honours of that fatal day, though justice has 
never been done to the fact. 

* Arrival. 



178 ARRAN 

It was at this time that the good Sir John 
the Graeme fell, in a conflict, it seems, be- 
tween the few knights of Wallace's force and 
those accompanying Bruce's party. The 
Scottish host, or what was left of it, retired 
to the Torwood above Larbert on Carron 
side, and Bruce is described as returning to 
Edward's tent where he, 

" Sitting down in his own vacant seat, 
Call'd for no water, but went straight to meat. 
Tho' all his weapons and his other weed * 
Were stained with blood, yet he began to feed ; 
The Southron lords did mock him in terms rude, 
And said, behold yon Scot eats his own blood ! 
The king he blenched at this so home a jest. 
And caused bring water to the Bruce in haste ; 
They bade him wash, he told them he would not, 
' The blood is mine, which vexes most my thought.' " 



HOW THE BRANDANES COVERED THE 
RETREAT 

According to Carrick's account, made up 
from the English writers, who do not differ 
materially from the foregoing, the Scottish 
army, which principally consisted of spearmen 
or lancers, was arranged in four divisions or 

* Clothing and accoutrements. 



. THE DAYS OF WALLACE 179 

schiltrons. "Those in the centre held their 
long spears perpendicular, and stood ready to 
fill up a vacancy, while each intervening rank 
gradually sloped their weapons till they came 
to a level. The front rank kneeling, and the 
whole closely wedged together, presented to 
the enemy the appearance of four enormous, 
impenetrable porcupines, the space between 
each being filled up with archers." Seeing 
the strong appearance of the Scots, the king 
desired to wait, but gave way to the opinions 
of his followers, and sent forward the Earls 
of Lincoln and Hereford with a squadron 
of 30,000 men. Their progress, how- 
ever, was retarded by an extensive morass, 
which covered the front of the Scots and 
obliged their enemies to make a circuit to the 
west. While thus employed, the powerful 
squadron under Bishop Bek of Durham 
managed to get in front of the enemy. Bek, 
however, on observing the formidable appear- 
ance of his opponents, wished to delay the 
charge till supported by the column under the 
command of the king. " Stick to thy mass, 
Bishop," said Ralf Basset of Drayton, " and 



i8o ARRAN 

teach us not what to do in the face of an 
enemy." "On, then," said Bek ; "set on in 
your own way ; we are all soldiers to-day, and 
bound to do our duty." At this his men 
rushed forward, and " became engaged with 
the first schiltron, which was almost simul- 
taneously attacked on the opposite quarter 
by the division of Lincoln and Hereford which 
had cleared the morass. The cavalry of the 
Scots, and a large body of the vassals of John 
Comyn, immediately wheeled about, and left 
the field without awaiting the attack. The 
schiltrons of spearmen, however, stood firm, 
and repulsed all efforts of their numerous and 
heavy-armed assailants, who recoiled again 
and again before the mass of spears. Baffled 
in their attack, Edward's cavalry charged upon 
the archers, who, less able to stand their 
ground against the weight of their mail-clad 
adversaries, gave way. In the confusion. Sir 
John Stewart of Bonkill was thrown to the 
ground, while attempting to rally his followers, 
the archers of Selkirk, and, though many of 
them rushed forward to his assistance, their 
exertions were in vain : their gallant leader 



THE DAYS OF WALLACE i8i 

fell surrounded by the bodies of his faithful 
tenantry." 

Though heavy squadrons of cavalry were 
continually pushed forward against the Scot- 
tish spearmen, "still they maintained their 
ranks, and displayed such admirable discipline 
and stubborn resolution, that Edward, con- 
vinced of the inability of breaking their array, 
suspended the charges of his horsemen, and 
ordered all his archers and slingers to ad- 
vance." Of these, it is interesting to note, 
40,000 Welsh archers refused to act against 
the Scots. Langtoft says : 

" The "Walsch folk that tide did nouther ille nor good ; 
They held them alle beside, upon a hille they stood. 
Where they stood that while, tille the battle was done." 

Of the Scottish spearmen he says : 

" Ther foremast conrey, their backs together set, 
Their speares poynt over poynt, so sare and so thick. 
And fast together joined, to see it was ferlike. 
As a castle they stood, that were walled with stone, 
They wende no man of blood through them should 

have gone ; 
These folk was so big, so stalwart and so clean, 
Their foyntes forward prikelle, nohut would they wene, 
That if all England from Berwick unto Kent, 
The therein men fond had been thither sent, 



i82 ARRAN 

Stenth should none have had, to perte them through- 

oute, 
So were they set sad with poyntes round about." 

The schiltron formation, we are told, was 
well adapted for defence, and, despite their 
small number and the vast odds against them, 
had they been supplied with a good detachment 
of cavalry to have scattered the terrible archers 
of Edward, they would have probably held 
their ground. As it was, they were exposed 
to clouds of arrows and other missiles till 
they were reduced, it is estimated, to a fourth 
of their number, while the chosen English 
cavalry which had previously tried to move 
them, sat on their great horses and quietly 
waited till the cloth yard arrows had done 
what they, the veterans of the French war, had 
failed to do. And so the lads of Argyll and 
Arran and Bute, of Lanark and the Lennox, 
of Ayr and Renfrew, of Fife and Strathearn 
and Stirlingshire, — an army which, by the 
way, would be composed almost entirely of 
Gaelic - speaking persons, — was gradually 
mown down till the field was encumbered with 
their dead, to the number of 15,000 out of an 



THE DAYS OF WALLACE 183 

army of 20,000 — 15,000 of the finest soldiers 
Europe could then produce. 



THE BRANDANES AT PERTH 

Sir John the Graeme was buried in the 
old graveyard of Falkirk, where his grave may 
still be seen. There the late Marquis of Bute 
erected a monument to Stewart of Bonkill and 
the Brandanes, though it is probable that 
Stewart himself was actually buried in Bute. 

After the battle, the leaders had to hide ; for 
Edward's armies went through all the land, and 
Scotland lay at his feet. For six months she 
was almost conquered. Bute and Arran were 
once more reg-arded as the safe refugees of the 
patriotic party, and 



" The earl Malcolm and Campbell part, but let 
In Bute, succour with Synclar for to get." 



and 



' Adam Wallace, and Lyndsay of Cragye, 
Away they fled by nicht upon the sea ; 
And Robert Bold, which was baith wyss and wicht ; 
Arane they took to fend them at their micht." 

During Wallace's absence in France, the 



i84 ARRAN 

Scots fought and won the important threefold 
battle of Roslin, which was then the talk of 
Europe, and which had given so much en- 
couragement to the Scots. Neither Wallace 
nor " the Westland men " were present at this 
battle, of which an excellent account has been 
written by the late Mr. E. Bruce Low.* In 
July 1300 Edward again set out to conquer 
Scotland with a magnificent army ; and again 
in 1302, after a short truce, when Wallace 
gathered his old friends, Seton, Lauder, and 
Lundy from the Bass, where they were in 
hiding, and the Earl of Lennox, Sir Neil 
Campbell, and the Brandanes from Bute and 
Arran. For the Brandani had not yet had 
their fill of fighting, though there was many a 
sore heart in Arran and Bute, and for many a 
day Falkirk was remembered by the vacant 
places it had left. 

"The lordis then and good Synclair 
Soon out of Bute they made a ballinger t 
For good Wallace." 

And some time later, when they had no 

* In Chambers's Journal, 1909. 
t A ship or galley. 



A. 






THE DAYS OF WALLACE 185 

men with which to attack Perth, Wallace 
says : 

" In to the North therefore let us bound, 
In Ross ye know, good men a strength* have made, 
Here then afif us t they will come without delay ; 
Also in Bute the bishop good Sinclair, 
(Fra he get wit he comes without mar) J 
Good Westland men of Arane and Rauchle, 
If they be warned they will all come to me." 

So— 

" Byscop Synclar intill all haste him dycht 
Com out of Bute with seemly men to sicht ; 
Out of the isles of Rauchle and Aran." 

They appear to have been with Wallace in his 
adventures till his capture by means of Sir 
John Stewart of Menteith, but we have no 
details of their doings. The great patriot 
was captured on 5th August 1305. Attempts 
have been made to whitewash Menteith, but 
the fact remains that he, a friend, a brother in 
arms, who had been ardently on the side of 
the people and the independence of Scotland, 
hunted down and, by a low trick, betrayed the 

* Castle. t Let us go. 

X When he gets knowledge of it he will come without more 
ado. 



i86 ARRAN 

patriot who had saved her alike from Edward 
and from the Scoto-Norman nobles. 



EDWARDS VENGEANCE 

According to Hemingford's Chronicle, about 
this time Thomas Bisset of the Glens, in Ire- 
land, lord of the island of Rathlin, which had 
given so many men to the support of Wallace, 
and later sheltered Bruce, landed in Arran 
with a large force, and held it for Edward. 
Bisset's tenure, however, seems to have been 
a short one, for in 1306 Sir John Hastings was 
made Governor of Brodick. In the year pre- 
vious Wallace had been taken and executed, 
and Edward also executed an extraordinary 
number of Bruce's friends, including his 
brothers Neil, Thomas, and Alexander, his 
brother-in-law Christopher Seton, and Simon 
Eraser, the brilliant soldier but extraordinary 
renegade of Roslin. 



PART VIII 

HOW THE ARRAN MEN 

SHELTERED KING ROBERT 

BRUCE 



CHAPTER XIX 
THE AMBUSH AT BRODICK CASTLE 

Many romances have left their traces on 

Arran : that of the dim far-off days of the great 

monuments of Machrie Moor, the defensive 

camps, the stone circles ; the fine dreamers, 

thinkers, and artists too, who strove for 

high ideals in the highly civilised Dalriadic 

colony, must have left their imprint on Arran 

more than on any part of Scotland save 

Kintyre and Knapdale. Finally came the 

romance of the terrible days of the Norse 

invasions, days of darkness and of blood ; and 

of the later times when a leader of the island 

race shattered the power of these arch-enemies 

of the men of Arran. Yet not one of those 

stirring stories can compare in picturesque- 

ness, in the immediate touch with our own day, 

with the charming tale of Bruce's adven- 

189 



igo ARRAN 

tures, when, defeated and deserted by all save 
a mere handful, he sought refuge amongst 
the bold and faithful hearts of Kintyre and 
Arran. 

It was worthy of the old quixotic spirit of 
the sons of Somerled, who himself took up 
the almost hopeless cause of Mac Eth, that 
Angus and the Islesmen of Arran, who in blood 
and in spirit traced themselves to the days 
when King David gave Arran to Somer- 
led, should receive with open arms the 
deserted King of Scots : that at the moment 
when most men worshipped the rising sun, 
they should turn to that which seemed almost 
submerged in the western waters, 

Barbour, in his poem of ** The Bruce," tells 
this, Arran's most moving story : — 

"To King Robert again go we. 
That in Rauchryne with his men. 
Lay till the winter near was gane, 
And of that lie his met has ta'en. 
James of Douglas was angry 
That they so long should idle lie. 
And to Sir Robert Boyd said he : 
' The poor folk of this countree 
Are chargit upon great manner 
Of us, that idle lies here. 
And I hear say, that in Arane, 



SHELTER OF KING ROBERT BRUCE 191 

In-till a stith castell of stane, 
Are English men that, with strong hand, 
Holds the lordship of that land. 
Go we thither ; and well may fall, 
Annoy them in some way we sail.' 
Sir Robert said, ' I grant thar-till ; 
To lie here more were little skill : 
Therefore to Arane pas will we. 
For I know right well that countree, 
And the castle also know I. . . .' 
With that they buskit them on-aue. 
And at the king their leave have ta'en, 
And went them forth then on their way. 
Into Kintyre soon come are they ; 
Then rowed always close to land, 
Till at the night was near at hand ; 
Then to Arane they went their way. 
And safely there arrivit they.* 
And under a brae their galley drew. 
And then it holdit well enew 
Their tackle, oars, and their stere ; 
They hide all in the same manere. 
And held their way right in the night. 
So that, or day was dawned light. 
They were ambushed the castle near, 
Armit in the best manere ; 
And though they wet were and wearie. 
And for lang fasting all hungry. 
They thought to hold them all privie 
Till that they well their point might see. 
Sir John the Hastings, at that tide 
With knights of full mickle pride, 
With squires and good yeomanry. 
That were a weill great company, 

* They landed in Lochranza, and marched through Glen 
Chamadale to Brodick. 



192 ARRAN 

Was in the Castle of Brodwick . . . 

The time that James of Douglas, 

As I am told, ambushed was ; 

So happened at that time by chance, 

With victuals and provisions, 

And with clothing and arms. 

The day before, in the evening. 

The under warden arrived was 

With three boats, quite near the place. 

Where that the folk I spoke of before 

Privily ambushed were. 

Soon from the boats the batis saw them gae. 

Of English men, thirty and mae. 

Charged all with sundry things, 

Some bore wine and some arms . . ." 

Douglas and his party then burst from their 
ambush, 

"And slew all they might overtake. 
The cry raised hideously and high. 
From they, that dreading well to die. 
Right as beasts can roar and cry 
They rushit forth to the fighting ; 
But when Douglas saw their coming. 
On his men he knew he could rely. 
And went to meet them hastily. 
And when they of the castle saw . . . 
They fled forouten more debate ; 
And they them followed to the gate. 
And slew of them, as they in past." 

Douglas and his men then took the arms 
and provisions they had captured, and went 
their way. 

Ten days later, the king, with all the men 



SHELTER OF KING ROBERT BRUCE 193 

who had followed him, set out in thirty-three 
small galleys, and "arivit in Arane." 

"And syne to the land is gane, 
And we in a toune took shelter ; 
And soon speired carefully, 
If any man could tell tithand 
Of any stranger in that land." 

A woman tells him of Douglas and his men, 
who had discomfited the warden. 

" ' Dame,' said the king, ' should you me vis 
To that place where their hiding is, 
I will reward you but lesing : 
For they are all of my own dwelling ; 
And I right blithely would them see. 
And right so trow I they would me.'" 

And so the good woman led him, though, 
as the islanders were all Gaelic speakers for 
five hundred years afterwards, it is certain 
that, if the poet writes truly, the king must 
have learnt Gaelic in his youth in his mother's 
land of Galloway or Carrick. 

" They followed her as she them led. 
Till at the last she shewed the stead, 
To the king in a woody glen." 

The place is said by tradition to have 

been the ancient fort called Tornanschian in 

Glencloy. 
13 



194 ARRAN 

The king wound his horn three times, and 
Douglas knew the sound, and went forth with 
Sir Robert Boyd. 

"And blithely welcomed them the king, 
That joyfull was of their meeting, 
And kissed them and speired them 
How they had fared in their hunting." 

Bruce, according to the tradition, took up 
his quarters in the caves of Drumadoon, which 
are associated with his name, but he later 
set to work to capture Brodick Castle, and 
there took up his quarters. The spot is 
shown in the castle where his little party used 
to sit and chat and so beguile the time, and 
the king used to tell stories of chivalry to 
entertain his men ; for he was a genial and 
kindly man was our strong-armed king, and 
was not of the sort, as he proved later, who 
forgot or neglected those who helped them. 

BRUCE AND THE SPIDER 

According to tradition, the cottage in which 
the defeated and discouraged king watched 
the spider In its many attempts to weave its 
web, as described in the well-known ballad, 



SHELTER OF KING ROBERT BRUCE 195 

stood on the shore at Whiting Bay, and the 
wife of the cottage, the story says, told him 
his fortune, as Barbour describes, and brought 
him her two sons to aid in the great fight 
for the throne. The cottage is said to have 
stood close by the standing - stone which 
marks the place of his departure for the 
Carrick coast. 



THE RED LIGHT ON TURNBERRY BEACON 

It was from the walls of Brodick that he 
watched for the red light on Turnberry beacon 
which was to lead him forth to many perilous 
adventures. For one day the king decided 
to send a man to his own realm of Carrick — 

" To spy and speir how the kingdom 
Is led, or who is friend or foe, 
And if he sees we land may too, 
On Turnberry's snook* he may 
Make a fire on a certain day. 
As token to us that we may 
There arrive into safety." 

The king then sent one Cuthbert, a native 
of Carrick, who found, however, that few 

* A small promontory or head. 



196 ARRAN 

spoke well of the Bruce in Carrick, and that 
the land, both high and low, hill and valley, 
was occupied by Englishmen, 

"That despised above all thing 
Robert the Bruce, the doughty king." 

He saw that in Turnberry Castle was the 
Lord Percy with three hundred men, so he 
decided not to light the fire, but to return to 
his master. 

"The king that into Arane lay, 
When that coming was the day. 
That he gave to his messenger. 

After the fire he looked fast, 

And as soon as the noon was past 

He thought that he saw a fire, 

By Turnberry burning weill schyre ; 

And to his men he can it show 

Every man thought that he it saw. 

Then with blithe heart the folk began to cry, 

' Good king, speed you deliuerly, 

So that we soon in the evening 

Arrive, without perceiving.' 

Then in short time men might them see 
Shoot all their galleys to the sea." 

And as the king was walking up and down 
on the shore at Whiting Bay, opposite the 
Castle of Turnberry, while his men were 



SHELTER OF KING ROBERT BRUCE 197 

making all ready, his hostess came to him 
and told him his fortune. She warns him 
of terrible things that he must go through, 
but says that no might or strength of hand 
shall send him forth again out of his land : — 

" Within short time ye shall be king, 
And have the land at your liking, 
And overcome your foemen all." 

And then, to show how much she believed 
her own prophecy, she gave him her two 
sons to accompany him. The king thanked 
her, and was comforted, though not quite con- 
vinced ; for, as the old poet says : — 

" Indeed it is wonderful, perfay. 
How any man through stars may 
Know the things that are to come,. 
Determinedly, all or some. 

But me think it were great mastery 

For any astrologer to say 

This shall fall here and on this day." 

Barbour says when the king left — 

"This was in spring, when winter-tide 
With his blasts, hideous to bide, 
Was overpast, and birdis smale, 
The thristill and the nightingale, 
Began right merrily to sing. 



igS ARRAN 

Into that time the noble king, 
With his fleet and a few nienyie, 
Three hunder I trow they might well be, 
Was to the sea furth of Arane." 

They rowed across without compass, 
keeping the fire always in view ; and there 
Cuthbert awaited them, full of fear, for the 
fire, he said, had not been kindled by him, and 
all the country was full of Bruce's foes. They 
held counsel, and Edward Bruce, the king's 
brother, settled matters by refusing to go 
back. 

THE BRANDANES AT BANNOCKBURN 

Then Angus rose — " Lead on, brave Bruce, 
The foemen who thy footsteps cross 

In silence wrapped shall sleep to-night. 
Or hie them back owre Milton Moss. 

Here stand arrayed my Hielan men, 
From yon green islands by Kintyre ; 

Clan Cholla and the brave Brandanes ; 
Cold is their steel — their hearts are fire ! 

They stand arrayed to win or die ; 

As on its prey the grey gled springs 
So shall their claymores swiftly strike 

For honour of a race of kings." 

They charge ! MacDonald and MacCug, 
MacBride, MacKinnon and MacLoy, 

Shoulder to shoulder, foot to foot, 
Like some wild torrent mad with joy. 



SHELTER OF KING ROBERT BRUCE 199 

And who shall stand and stem that flood? 

Back to the burn the foe they fling ; 
Horo ! Hera ! the day is ours, 

And Randolph breaks their wav'ring wing. 

Then, 'mid the din of splintering lance 

And crash of axe on iron mail, 
Down all Clan Cholla's kilted ranks 

The cry arose, " They fail ! they fail ! " 

And thus they shattered Edward's might, 
That we, their children, should be free, 

To wanton in the wind that sweeps 

Our islands by the western sea. — M'K. M'B. 

Angus appears to have joined Bruce at the 
Torwood, near Falkirk, and it was there that 
the king addressed to him the famous words 
quoted by Sir Walter Scott : " My hope is 
constant in thee." 

Bruce's army at Bannockburn consisted of 
30,000 men, according to Barbour, and the 
king divided them into four "battels," or 
divisions : Randolph led the vanguard. Sir 
Edward Bruce the second division, the 
Steward, then a boy, with Douglas led the 
third division, and 

"The fourth battel the noble king 
Took to himself in governing ; 
And had intill his company 
The men of Carrick all halely. 
And of Argyle and of Kentyr, 



200 ARRAN 

And of the Isles, whereof was Sir 
Angus of Isla and Bute, all they. 
He of the plain land had alsua 
Of armyt men a meikle rout." 

The description of the battle is well done 
by Barbour, and full of detail probably taken 
down from the tongues of people who had 
actually been in the fight. A touch of humour 
is given by a wise old knight, Sir Ingraham 
Umfraville, who fears the men who would 
fight on foot, and suggests to Edward that he 
might win the battle by ordering his army to 
retire behind their pavilions and tents, and so 
tempt the enemy to leave their strong posi- 
tion. He had evidently had experience of the 
Scots ; he said to the king — 

f/'You shall see that they, 

Despite their lords, shall break away 
And scale* them our harness to take. 
And when we see them scaled away, 
Prik we on them hardily." 

The men of Randolph and Douglas and 
Edward Bruce soon got to blows with the 
enemy, and so eagerly the Scots fought, 

"That they made neither noise nor cry 
But dang on the other at their might." 

* Disperse. 



SHELTER OF KING ROBERT BRUCE 201 

And when Bruce saw all his three divisions 
doing well, he brought in "the Westland 
men " with their terrible axes. 

" So great dinging there was of dints 
As weapons upon weapon stints, 
And of spears so great brusting, 
With such throwing and such thrusting, 
Such girning and groaning, and so great 
A noise, as they can other beat 

That it was hideous for to hear." 

At Bannockburn, in addition to Islesmen 
and Highlanders under Angus of Isla and 
Kintyre, Major tells us that in the force under 
Douglas and Randolph, Bruce put " seven 
thousand of the Border youth, who from their 
earliest years had known no occupation than 
fighting ; along with these he joined three 
thousand Wild Scots, whose arms consisted 
of a two-edged battle-axe,* equally sharp on 
both sides ; men, these last, who will rush 
upon the enemy with the fury of a lioness in 
fear for her cubs." Again he says : " The 
Wild Scots rushed upon them in their fury 

* These axes seem to have been different from the usual 
single-edged Lochaber axe of the West Highlands, if Major 
is correct. 



202 ARRAN 

as wild boars do : hardly would any weapon 
make stand against their axes, handled as 
they knew to handle them ; all around them 
was a very shambles of dead men, and when, 
stung by wounds, they were yet unable by 
reason of the long staves of the enemy to 
come to close quarters, they threw off their 
plaids, and, as their custom was, did not 
hesitate to offer their naked bellies to the 
point of the spear. Now in close contact 
with the foe, no thought is theirs but of 
the glorious death that awaited them if only 
they could compass his death too. Once 
entered in the heat of the conflict, even as 
one sheep will follow another, so they, and 
hold cheap their lives. The whole plain is 
red with blood ; from the higher parts to the 
lower blood flows in streams. In blood the 
heroes fought, yea knee-deep." 

It would have been interesting to know 
from which part of Scotland the particular 
men Major refers to came. He probably 
refers only to the general custom amongst 
them. 

In Bruce's six invasions of England which 



SHELTER OF KING ROBERT BRUCE 203 

followed Bannockburn, it is probable that the 
Brandanes were present. 

Bruce lived for a time in Arran in 1326 
with Menteith, who had long since come over 
to his cause, and the king gave him back his 
Arran lordship, and also conferred upon him 
the district of Knapdale. 



PART IX 

WHAT THE BRANDANES DID 
FOR THE STEWARTS 



CHAPTER XX 

WHAT THE BRANDANES DID FOR THE 
STEWARTS 

THE BATTLE OF THE STONES 

The Brandanes followed Robert Bruce to 
Tarbert, and were with the Steward in his 
raids into England at Byland and at York, 
where the English Queen came so near to 
being captured. They were also with him at the 
desperate siege of Berwick in 13 19; but the 
greatest of their services to his house was at 
the '• Battle of the Stones." 

When Robert Bruce died in 1329, at only 
fifty years of age, his son David was a boy 
of only six years, and Scotland was again 
plunged into trouble by the ambition of 
Edward ni. of England, who at once com- 
menced his grandfather's old tactics, disregard- 
ing the treaty of perpetual peace between the 

207 



2o8 ARRAN 

two countries which had been signed in 1328. 
The treaty had been full of promise for little 
Scotland as a nation, though it meant bad 
times for Border reiver and Highland cateran, 
who had enriched themselves so often by the 
national pastime of a raid into England, 
during Bruce's reign. 

Edward quietly put up Edward Baliol as 
king, and bribed the easily purchased nobles 
of Scotland to lend him their aid when he 
sent Baliol with an army to invade Scotland. 
Baliol was crowned at Scone, but the Scottish 
people were roused, and gathering an army 
they invaded England. At the famous battle 
of Halidon Hill they got well beaten, for 
there they forgot *' Bruce's Testament," in 
which he told them always to avoid the 
tented field, the formal pitched battle, and to 
adopt always the tactics of what we would 
to-day call the guerilla chief. At Halidon 
Hill the Brandanes were almost annihilated. 

The King of England then again invaded 
Scotland on the rejection of Baliol by the 
Scots, and reached Glasgow with a large 
army. He sent his fleet into the Firth of 



BRANDANES AND STEWARTS 209 

Forth, and made the Earl of Athol Guardian 
and Governor of the kingdom. Athol then 
summoned the freeholders of the Stewart- 
lands — that is, in the south, in Renfrew, Ayr, 
Carrick, Galloway, Selkirk, and so on, and, 
having made them swear fealty to Baliol, he 
marched into the Highlands, and "there was 
no one who durst gainsay him or proclaim 
himself Bruce's man." 



THE STEWARD S ESCAPE FROM ROTHESAY 
CASTLE 

About the same time the young Robert 
Stewart, heir to the throne, who was then 
fifteen years old, was still, for fear of the 
enemy, lurking in concealment in Rothesay 
Castle, and was deriving great comfort from, 
and having frequent conversations with, " two 
lovers of peace, friends of King David," 
John MacGilbride, Captain of Bute, and 
William Heriot, then sojourning in the 
barony ; and they found means to take him 
over to Dunbarton Castle, bringing with them 
the charters of Stewartland. 
14 



2IO ARRAN 

Stewart, finding his position still dangerous, 
and resenting the conduct of Athol in laying 
claim to the Stewart patrimony, took action, 
sent for his friend the Lord of Lochawe, and 
soon captured Dunoon Castle. Holinshead 
(1585) thus describes the famous Battle of 
the Stones, which was one of the greatest 
of all the services of the Brandani to the 
house of Stewart. 

" Incontinently, therefore, Robert Steward 
assembled his friends by the help of Dungall 
Campbell of Lochquhow, and suddenly took 
the Castell of Dunoon, sleaing all the English- 
men and others who were found therein. . . . 
The commons of Bute and Arran, glad of this 
prosperous beginning, assembled together to 
the number of 400 persons, and set forward, 
that they might come to support Robert 
Steward in such his late begun enterprizes : 
and being incountered by the way by Alane 
Lile, shiriff of Bute, they laid so lustilie about 
them, that they slue the shiriffe (taking 
prisoner John Gilbert, captaine of the Castell 
of Bute) there in the field, and discomfited 
5l11 his people, which they did after this manner. 



BRANDANES AND STEWARTS 211 

These people of Bute (called the servants of 
Bawdanus), seeing such sturs to be made by 
Alan Lile, ran to a heap of stones not far 
from them, and with great force pelting the 
sheriffe, they in the end killed him with stones, 
and put the rest to flight. Divers of them, 
taken prisoners, were brought away, and pre- 
sented to Robert Steward." 

The Book of Pluscarden gives a few 
further particulars of this interesting fight. It 
says that when the natives of the county 
heard that their lord Robert Stewart had thus 
entered their country, "there flocked to him 
... a people called the Brandans, who came 
to his assistance of their own accord." 

" The sheriff of the county of Bute, Alan 
Lisle, then tried to hem the Brandans in on 
all sides in a narrow pass, and commenced to 
kill them without mercy. They, seeing them- 
selves unarmed and surrounded by armed 
men, posted themselves in a strong place, and, 
waiting the attack, commenced to shower 
stones upon the sheriff and his men, till they 
had killed Lyle and many others, and the rest 
of his army took to flight. They then cut the 



212 ARRAN 

sheriff's head off and presented it to the 
Stewart, and also took prisoner John Gilbert- 
son, the captain of Bute." 

This appears to be the same Gilbertson or 
MacGilbride who had secretly, with Heriot, 
rowed the Steward to Dunbarton Castle. He 
had evidently been made to swear allegiance 
to Baliol, like many more, against his will. 
Gilbertson, weare told, "^ surrendered the Castle 
of Bute and did homage to the Steward as 
" his natural lord," which, with his local name, 
certainly means that he was a native. 

From him branches of the MacBride and 
Bannatyne families claim descent. Thus 
genial Robert was able to make a stand in 
the West, and was there joined by many 
friends, including Thomas Bruce and the 
men of Kyle. 

For this most notable service of the Bran- 
danes, Holinshead adds that Stewart, " in 
recompense of this service, granted sundrie 
privileges unto the inhabitants of Bute and 
Arran : as, among other things, to be free from 
paying tribute for their corn and grain. Such 

* Book of Pluscarde?t. 



BRANDANES AND STEWARTS 213 

felicities succeeding one another, caused many 
of the Scots to join themselves with Robert 
Steward, in hope to recover the realm out of 
the Englishmen's hands." 

Save Halidon Hill, the Scots had been 
successful in all their raids, and Edward ofot 
little from his invasions till at Neville's Cross, 
where the Brandani were also present, David 
II., then a youth of eighteen, refusing the ad- 
vice of experienced men, suffered utter defeat. 
The Scots army, gathered from Highlands 
and Lowlands, made a hasty retreat to the 
fortresses of the Border country, and King 
David was carried captive into England by 
one Sir John Copeland, an English knight. 

THE king's bodyguard 

Robert 11. did not forget the Brandani, and 
he made them his bodyguard and gave them 
charters for their lands, one of which, dated in 
the second year of his reign, is still possessd by 
the head of the ancient family of MacLoy or 
MacLouie of Kilmichael and Whitefarland, 
who took the name of Fullarton probably from 
the Ayrshire estate of that name. 



214 ARRAN 

THE BATTLES OF WILLIAM THE LYON AND 
THE DISASTER AT PINKIE 

The men of the South Isles were probably 
amongst the Highland Scots and Galloway 
men who followed William the Lyon in his 
two attempts to recover Northumberland and 
Cumberland, which had been won for Scot- 
land by David i. and foolishly made over to 
Henry, the English king, by treaty of 
Malcolm the Maiden, a mere boy. William 
was taken prisoner when jousting with a 
small party of knights. Immediately the 
Gaelic people of Scotland, indignant at the 
encroachments of feudalism and the fondness 
of the Scottish monarchs for foreign knights 
and nobles, massacred the Normans and 
English, and made what Fordun calls "a 
most woeful and exceeding great persecution 
of the English, both in Scotia and Galloway." 
The island of Arran had reverted to the Stew- 
arts, and the sheriffship of Arran and Bute 
was given by Robert ii. to his natural son, 
the ancestor of the present Sir Hugh Shaw 
Stewartof Ardgowan and Blackball. Stewart's 



BRANDANES AND STEWARTS 215 

second son was keeper of Brodick Castle in 
1445-50, and received for the office the sum 
of ;^20 anually, with the revenues of some 
crown lands in the island. 

A little later the chiefs of Kintyre and 
their men paid Arran a number of visits, in 
which they took away with them many un- 
considered trifles, quite in the old spirit of 
the Gall Gael. The castles of the island, 
Lochranza, Brodick, and Kildonan were 
fortified and garrisoned, and a number of 
galleys were held in readiness by the Arran 
lairds. In 1455 the famous Donald Balloch 
sacked and dismantled Brodick, and in 1462 
came the invasion of the Earl of Ross and 
the Lord of the Isles, their object, according 
to Gregory, being to upset the Scottish 
monarchy. 

The island of Arran was always an impor- 
tant place, the prop of thrones, the refuge of 
kings, the cradle of fighting men, the prize of 
the liberator ; but of course the seat of govern- 
ment was not entirely situated in Brodick 
Castle, and it is difficult to see how these 
gentlemen, with all their expert knowledge 



2i6 ARRAN 

of raids and rebellions, could expect to win 
the Scottish crown by capturing even that 
mainstay of royalty ! Their navy was com- 
posed of the enormous number of five hundred 
galleys belonging to the Lord of the Isles. As 
Mr. MacArthur puts it with unconscious 
humour : " Though the expedition failed to 
disturb the independence of Scotland, it was 
most disastrous in its results on the islets of 
the Clyde." 

The islanders and west Highlanders gener- 
ally were present to the number of four 
thousand at the disastrous battle of Pinkie 
in 1547. Beague, a Frenchman, who was 
an eye-witness, says : "The Highlanders, who 
show courage on all occasions, gave proof of 
their conduct at this time, for they kept together 
in one body, and made a very handsome and 
orderly retreat. They are armed with broad- 
swords, large bows, and targets." 

Only the year previous the islands of Bute 
and Arran had been burnt by the English, 
assisted by MacNeill of Barra, and at this 
time the position of the Hamiltons was 
rendered precarious and unpleasant from 






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BRANDANES AND STEWARTS 217 

these raids, as is shown by the various 
bonds they made with the Arran lairds, the 
MacAllisters, MacCooks, MacDavids, Mac- 
Brides, MacKinnons, MacKilgirs, MacCairlies, 
MacDonalds, and others, for mutual defence 
in the sixteenth century, not many years after 
their acquisition of the island. 



PART X 
THE LATER LORDS OF ARRAN 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE LATER LORDS OF ARRAN 

THE BOYDS 

In 1465 Arran once more changed its rulers, 
for it was given to the noted Regent, Lord 
Boyd, the man who had made his fortune by 
audaciously marrying his son to the Princess 
Mary, sister of the king. Young Boyd was 
made Earl of Arran, and received the island 
as a marriage portion. The Regent became 
extraordinarily unpopular, being regarded as 
an upstart by the nobility, and he was ruined 
and disgraced, so that his son fled, and all his 
honours were confiscated and bestowed upon 
the king's eldest son, afterwards James iv. 

THE HAMILTONS 

The keepership of Brodick Castle and 
certain farms in Arran were granted to 



222 ARRAN 

Hugh, Lord Montgomery, by James iv, in 
1488. In 1503 James, Lord Hamilton, 
husband of the Princess Mary, widow of the 
Earl of Arran, was made Earl of Arran, and 
to him were granted the Castle of Brodick and 
the crown lands of the island. 1 506 was the 
year of the general charter to the crown 
tenants of Bute, and in this year some of the 
Kintyre clans, chiefly the MacKays, made a 
raid upon the island. In 1528 the castle was 
burnt down by the Argyll clans, but was 
rebuilt by James v., who was a frequent visitor 
to the island. 

In 1544 Henry viii. sent a fleet of ships 
under the Earl of Lennox, which captured and 
razed to the ground the oft-razed castle of 
Brodick, and plundered the whole island. 
Making an Englishman, Sir Rice Mansell, 
governor, they also took " Rosie " castle, and 
made the captain prisoner. Brodick was 
again rebuilt and again raided, and taken by 
another English expedition, this time under 
the Earl of Sussex with a party of Irish. 

In 1579 the great power of the Hamiltons 
caused so much jealousy at court that they 



THE LATER LORDS OF ARRAN 223 

were deprived of their estates, and Ninian 
Stewart, nephew of King James vi., was made 
keeper of Brodick. The title of Earl of 
Arran was given to James Stewart of 
Ochiltree, a favourite of the king, who com- 
mitted so many crimes that the king was 
ultimately forced to abandon him, and his 
lordship of Arran reverted to the Hamiltons, 
in whose hands it has remained since. 



"LADY MARY 

The most popular proprietor the island 
has ever known is undoubtedly the present 
one, Lady Mary Douglas Hamilton, only 
child of the twelfth duke. She married the 
Marquis of Graham in 1906, and she and 
her husband are much attached to their 
many-memoried island home. The Grahams 
from the time of the great and chivalrous 
Marquis, of Inverlochy fame, always got on 
well with the Highland folk, and Arran was 
never so contented or so prosperous as at 
present. 



INDEX 



Alexander ill., King, at Largs, 
149. 
his high qualities as ruler, 
160. 
Am Bhinnean from the Corrie 

shore, 6. 
Arran, agriculture, state of, 
in eighteenth century, 
54-56. 
Bruce in, 14. 
Burrell's improvements in, 

43- 
charm of, 3. 
committee, members of, 

in 1770, 49- 
Cromwell and, 17. 
ethnology of, 80. 
in the eighteenth century, 

40. 
language of, 80. 
mountains of, 5. 
people, condition of, in 

1810, 59. 
preachers, famous, 52. 
rent-roll of, in 1778, 61. 
romances of, 12. 
runrig system in, 47. 
Athelstan, King, at Brunan- 

burh, 10, 

Balfour, J. A., on the word 
Brandan, 'j'j. 
on St. Brendan's cell, 78. 

15 



Balloch, Donald, attacks 

the isles, 215. 
Bannatyne family, descent 

of, 72. 
Barbour's " Brus," 195- 

197. 
Barons of Arran and Bute, 

70. 
Boyle, Hon. Robert, hides at 

Auchaleffan, 66. 
" Brandane," meaning of the 
word, Book of Arran on, 
77- 
FuUarton, on meaning of 

word, 77. 
Rev. Neil MacBride on 
meaning of word, 77. 
Brandanes, the, at battle of 
Bannockburn, 198. 
at battle of Falkirk, 169. 
at battle of Halidon Hill, 

208. 
at battle of Neville's Cross, 

213. 
at battle of Pinkie, 214. 
at " Battle of the Stones," 

2 ID. 
at battle of Stirling Bridge, 

160. 
at Perth with Wallace, 

183. 
follow William the Lyon, 
214. 



226 



INDEX 



Brandanes, the, form the 
King's bodyguard, 213. 
slay the sheriff of Bute, 

210. 
under Wallace, 166. 
what they did for the 
Stewarts, 207. 
Brannan MacLir, 79. 
Brendan, St., of Clonfert, 
78. 
cell of, in Arran, 78. 
cell of, in Kintyre, 78. 
Brian, King, of Munster, his 

good nature, 13. 
Brodick Castle, 189. 
attack on men of, by 

Douglas, 194. 
captured by Bruce, 194. 
Bronze Age burials in Arran, 

96. 
Brown or MacBraon family, 

4- 
Thomas, member of Arran 
committee of 1770, 48. 
Bruce at Bannockburn, 198. 
at Glen Cloy and Druma- 

doon, 193-194. 
at King's Cross, 194. 
invades England, 292. 
lands in Arran, 193. 
leaves for Turnberry, 195. 
treaty of perpetual peace 
with England, 208. 
Brunanburh, battle of, 126. 
Burrell, John, his improve- 
ments in Arran, 43. 
his diary, 54. 
Bute charter of 1506, 70. 

Caisteal Abhail mountain, 5. 
Canada, lower, Arran men 

settle in, 57. 
Castle of Arran (Brodick), 

27. 



Castle of Arran, granted to 

Montgomery, 29. 
keepers of, 28. 
Lochranza, given by 

Menteith to Campbell, 

of Lochawe, 29. 
rebuilding of, 27. 
Caves, Bennan Head, ancient 

remains found at, 33. 
Drumadoon associated 

with Bruce and with 

Fion, 31. 
Kilpatrick, the " Preaching 

Cave," 32. 
Kilpatrick, school held in, 

32. 
Ceum na Cailleach mountain, 

5- 
Chaleur Bay, settlement of 

Arran men at, 7. 
Chapels, Arran, 21. 

Kilbride, granted by John 

of Menteith to monks of 

Kilwinning, 21, 22. 
Kilbride, removal of ancient 

sculptured cross from, 

.23. 
Kilmichael, Glen Cloy, 25. 
Kilmory, 23. 
Kilmory, granted to monks 

of Kilwinning, 23. 
Kilpatrick, 25. 
Sannox, 26. 
Shisken, 25. 
Charters granted to Arran 

men by Robert ll., t^i- 
Cioch nan h'oige mountain, 

its changing character, 

5- 
Cir Mhor mountain, 5. 
Clontarf, battle of, 129. 
Cook family, see MacCug. 
Corrie, 7. 
high, 80. 



INDEX 



227 



Corrie, Killing Stone at, 18. 
Couper, George, member of 

Arran committee of 

1770, 48. 
Craig, Peter, his school in the 

Kilpatrick cave, 32. 
Craig na Cuiroch, fort of, 

107. 
Crawford family, 71, 75. 
now custodians of Baul 

Muluy, 33. 
Patrick, prize-winner in 

1777, 50- 
Cromwell and Arran, 17. 
his fear of the Dutch 

seizing the islands, 17. 
his soldiers killed by the 
Arran men, 17. 
Carrie family, 71. 
John, prize-winner in 1776, 
50. 

Dalriadic colony, its great 

promise, 13. 
Davidson family, see under 

MacDavid. 
Douglas, Sir James, lands in 

Arran, 191. 
his ambush at Brodick, 

192. 
Drumadoon, fort at, 104. 

caves at, 31. 
Dun Fion, fort at, 106. 

Edward i. of England, how 

he persecuted the Scots, 

161. 
his award to Baliol, 163. 
his conduct at Berwick, 

164. 
Edward III. breaks the 

treaty of perpetual peace, 

208. 
Ethnology of Arran, 96. 



Evictions in Arran, 57, 58, 

59- 
in Highlands, Somerville 

on, 64. 
in Highlands, MacKenzie 

on, 64. 
in Highlands, Dr. Donald 

MacLeod on, 64. 

Falkirk, Brandanes at the 

battle of, 169. 
Families, old, in Arran, 69. 

their ancient rights, 46. 
Feudal system, evil influence 
of, 161. 
how it enslaved the people, 
162. 
Fionn, mythological char- 
acter, 16. 
his name in word Arran, 

16. 
his cave at Drumadoon, 32. 
legends of, in Arran, 16. 
Forts and camps, ancient, 

104. 
Fullarton, see MacLouie, 71, 
75. 

Gall Gael, meaning of the 

word, 123. 
Geology of Arran, 30. 
Glen Ashdale, fort in, 105. 
Glen Cloy, Bruce in, 14. 

in Pennant's time, 15. 
Glenrickard, meaning of 

name, 15. 
Glen Sannox scenery, 5. 

Chapel, 26. 

hills, 6. 

Killing Stone at, 18. 
Goatfell, from Brodick lanes, 

7. 
murder of E. R. Rose on, 
26. 



228 



INDEX 



Godred Crovan, original of 
Hamlet, 130. 
defeated bySomerled, 135. 
his tyranny, 134. 
the Black King of Man 
and the Isles, 133. 
Gow, David, poem by, 8. 

Hakon of Norway at Lam- 
lash, 10. 
defeat of, by Alexander, 10. 
Hamilton, Duke of, killed at 
Worcester, 18. 
sends letter to Prince 

Charles Edward, 65. 
sympathy with the Stew- 
arts, 65, 
Hamilton, Lady Mary, 
marries the Marquis of 
Graham, 223. 
Hamilton, Lord James, 
marries the King's sister, 
222. 
Hamilton, Marquis of loyal 
to Charles I., 17. 
beheaded, 17. 
Hamilton, Patrick, member 
Arran committee, 1770, 
48. 
John, member Arran 

committee, 1770, 48. 
John, member Arran 
committee, 1770, 48. 
Hamiltons deprived of 
their titles and estates 
in 1579, 223. 
get grant of Brodick 
Castle and Crown lands 
in Arran in 1503, 222. 
made Earls of Arran, 222. 
restored to their titles, 
223. 
Harald Harfaager in the 
Hebrides, 117. 



Henderson, Rev. George, on 
Norse influence on 
Scotland, 122. 

Holy Island, charm of, 10. 
cave of Molios and its 
runic inscription, 11. 

Hunter family, 71, 75. 

Intermarrying in Arran, 
statement regarding, 63. 
lona. Christians of, 116. 
monastery of, sacked by 
Norsemen, 123. 

Johnson, A. H., on the 
Northmen, 124. 

Kappey, F. E., sonnet on 

Arran, i. 
Kelso family, 71, 75. 
Kennedy family, 71, 75. 
Kerr family, 71, 75. 
Kilbride graveyard, 22. 

ancient cross from, 23. 
Kilmichael in Glen Cloy, 15. 

Fullartons of, 14. 

remains of, at Shisken, 25. 

Language of Arran, the im- 
portance of preserving 
it, 81. 

Largs, battle of, 143. 
Alexander's tactics at, 149. 

MacAllister family, 71, 75. 
Hector, member of Arran 

committee of 1770, 48. 
John (Rev.), life of, 53. 
MacArthur, Rev. John, his 
book on Arran, 56. 
on the old Arran lands, 
60. 
MacBraon, MacBrayne, or 
Brown family, 71. 



INDEX 



229 



MacBride, Neil (Rev.), mini- 
ster of Kilmory, 53. 

family, 71, 75. 

Neil (Rev.), Lamlash, on 
the old Arran Barons, 

IZ- 
on the meaning of the 
word Brandani, ']']. 
MacBride, Alexander (Rev.), 
his New Statistical Ac- 
count of Kilmory Parish, 
57. 
on the Arran evictions, 

57. 
Charles of Shedag and St. 

Molios Chapel, 23. 
Duncan, member Arran 

committee of 1770, 48. 
James (writer), on Arran 
and " the Forty-five," 65. 
MacCug or MacCook family 
of Bennicarigan, 71, 75. 
Archibald, preacher, 53. 
Finlay, preacher, 53. 
John, member of the 
Arran committee, 1770, 
48. 
MacDavid or Davidson 
family, 71, 75- 
Peter, preacher, 53. 
MacGregor, Alexander, 

member of Arran com- 
mittee of 1770, 48. 
James, sent to Prince 
Charles Edward with 
letter by Duke of 
Hamilton, 65. 
William, 48. 
MacKelvie family, 71. 
MacKenzie family, 71. 
MacKillop family, 71. 
Angus, prize-winner, 1770, 
50. 
MacKinnon family, 71, 75. 



MacKinnon, Alexander, fam- 
ous preacher, 32. 
Alexander, prize-winner, 

1777, so- 
one of clan killed in 

encounter with Revenue 

officers, 32. 
MacKintosh family, keepers 

of Stone Globe of St. 

Muluy, 35. 
MacKirdy family, descent 

of, 72. 
MacLeod, Dr. Donald, on 

Highland evictions, 

64. 
MacLouie, MacLoy, or 

Fullarton of Kilmichael 

and Whitefarland, family 

of, 71, 72,75- 
MacMaster family, 71. 
MacMhurrich, MacVurich, 

Murchie, or Curfie 

family, 72. 
MacMillan, Angus, preacher, 

53- 
Daniel, publisher, 86. 
family, 71. 
of Knap, Argyll, 92. 
MacNicol (or Nicol) family, 

71. 
MacNish family, 71. 
Magnus Barefoot in the 
Hebrides, 130. 
adopts the Highland dress, 

132. 
second visit of, 131. 
Molios, Saint, Cave of, on 

Holy Island, 10. 
Montgomerys, the, in Arran, 
29. 
Alexander, Lochranza 

Castle granted to, 29. 

of Skelmorlie, Lochranza 

Castle granted to, 30. 



230 



INDEX 



Muluy, Saint, virtues of his 

Stone Globe, 33. 
Munro, Neil, his description 

of Argyll in John 

Splendid, 41. 
Murray, Patrick, factor of 

Arran, 41. 

Nicol or MacNicol, Archibald, 

preacher, 53. 
Norman nobility of Scotland, 

miserable conduct of, 

166, 168, 169. 
Norse, ancient, type of skull, 

100. 
and the feudal system, 

115. 
first attacks of, 121. 
in Arran, 114. 
influence on Scotland, 

122. 
influence. Rev. George 

Henderson on, 122. 
influence, A. H. Johnson 

on, 124. 
type to-day, loi. 

Ogg, William, member Arran 
committee of 1770, 48. 

Paterson, John, factor of 

Arran, on love of country 

of Arran people, 4. 
Pennant on Arran men, 61, 

62. 
his description of the songs 

sung at daily tasks, 62. 
on families who sheltered 

Bruce, 75. 
Pette (?), John, member 

Arran committee of 

1770, 48. 
Prehistoric remains in Arran, 

91. 



Prehistoric remains in Arran, 
Dr. James Bryce on, 93. 
Dr. T. H. Bryce on, 93, 98. 
The Book of Arran on, 
94, 99- 

Robertson family, 71. 
Rose, Edwin R., murder of, 
on Goatfell, 26. 

Saint Molios' Cell or Kil on 
Holy Island, 10. 
Bride's, Lochranza, 25. 
Bride's, Lamlash, 22. 
Bride's, Bennan, 25, 
Eoin's Cell, 25. 
Mary's (Kilmory), 23. 
Michael's, Shisken, 25. 
Michael's, Sannox, 26. 
Michael's, Glen Cloy, 25. 
Muluy, his Stone Globe, 

33- 
Patrick's Cell, 25. 
Scotland, state of agriculture 

in, 42. 
Shaw family, 71. 

Robert, prize-winner, 1777, 

Rev. William, maker of the- 
first Gaelic dictionary, 

24- . 
his friendship with Dr. 
Samuel Johnson, 85. 
Shisken and Machrie Moor, 

118. 
Smuggling in Arran, 50. 
in Essex a parallel, 50. 
Snorro Sturleson, his account 
of the battle of Largs, 

147. 
Somerled, the Hammer of the 
Norsemen, 137. 
an opposing force to feu- 
dalism, 139. 



INDEX 



231 



Somerled defeats Godred, 
142. 
his character, 138. 
his death at Renfrew, 

143- 
his great work for Scotland, 

,^37- 
his personal appearance, 

139. 
his treaty of 11 59, 142. 
marries daughter of King 
Olave the Red, 136. 

Steward Alexander, the, 
marries Jane, Nic 
Somerled, 146. 

Steward's escape from Rothe- 
say Castle, 209. 

Stewart family, 71, 75. 

Rev. Gershom, minister 
of Kilbride, member of 
Arran committee, 1770, 
48. 
author of the Old Statisti- 
cal Account of Kilbride. 

Stewarts, the, as rulers, 
160. 

Stirling Bridge, battle of, 
160. 



Stone Age remains in Arran, 
92. 

Tacitus's description of the 

Caledonians, 102. 
Thomson family, 71. 

Alexander, prize-winner, 

1777, 50. 
burial-place at Shisken, 24. 
Thorfin, Jarl of Orkney, 
conquers part of Scot- 
land, 129. 
Tornanschian, fort of, de- 
scribed by Pennant, 108. 
Bruce at, 108. 

Viking Age in Arran, 114. 

Wallace, days of, 159. 

his sweetheart murdered 

by Haselrig, 165. 
White, Captain, on St. 

Brendan's cell at Skip- 

nish, 78. 
Mr. J. A. Balfour on, 78. 
Wilson, Sir Daniel, on the 

Scandinavian type of 

skull, 100. 



AUG 



19 1912 / 



6 



iS'oJ/ 



